The recording captures the quartet as if they were in your living room... This is the kind of album that makes record reviewing the best job in the world. (Gramophone Awards) "These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique." (BBC Music Magazine) "This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." (Gramophone) "In their native repertoire they are�well-nigh�incomparable." (The Sunday Times) When the most prominent critics across the board concur in the opinion that an album is extraordinary, it certainly deserves to be released on vinyl. Although Smetana's chamber pieces are�few in number, each of them - personal, many a time harboring a bold autobiographical statement - constitutes one of the cornerstones of Czech chamber music. Smetana wrote his two quartets in the twilight of his life, when he was afflicted by deafness. String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", is a�programme�work: "My aim was to depict in tones the course of my life... The piece is of an intimate nature; therefore I deliberately wrote it for 4 instruments, which should converse as though within a close circle of friends..." Owing to it's being composed in an unconventional manner, String Quartet No. 2 comes across as a 20th-century work. The Pavel Haas Quartet's award-winning album has been released by�Supraphon�for vinyl fans and lovers of perfect sound on a top-quality LP, supplemented by a Hi-Res digital version. Smetana's intimate and timeless music, as performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet - for the first time on vinyl

The provocative title of the new album by the fêted mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková reflects a remarkable dramaturgic idea: that which connects the life of modern humans with the heroines of Antique mythology is the principle of sin – and forgiveness. This is perhaps why all the featured characters are smart and strong women, some of them even endowed with supernatural abilities. As rendered by Ms. Pecková and the Slovak Philharmonic under the baton of Aleksandar Marković, each of these “sinful women” is profoundly treated in psychological and emotional terms.

The recording of the concert performance in Nazi-occupied Prague of Bedrich Smetana’s My Country (SU 4065-2) conducted by Václav Talich, which took place on 5 July 1939, drew considerable attention worldwide (Special Historic Gramophone Award 2012). It seemed that Talich’s discography had thus been rounded off for good. Yet the personal effects of the late soprano Marie Podvalová, renowned for her outstanding portrayal of Princess Libuše, provided yet another gem. A week prior to the mentioned performance of My Country, on 29 May 1939 a recording was made at the National Theatre of Talich’s account of Smetana’s opera Libuše. Fragments of Act 3 have been reconstructed from the miraculously surviving foils (the present album also contains the 1940 recording of the Overture). In 1939, Libuše’s prophecy in Act 3 of Smetana’s opera must have sounded to Czech ears like an immensely bold declaration of national pride and courage. Although incomplete and far from being perfect in terms of the quality of sound, the recording’s value is truly immense. It is the one and only recording of an opera conducted by Talich, the oldest surviving transmission of an opera performance from the National Theatre in Prague, and the last staging of Libuše during the Nazi occupation before its performances were strictly banned. The audience’s long tumultuous applause and spontaneous singing of the national anthem attest to the moment’s enormous emotional gravity, imbuing the recording with exceptional energy. Talich’s unique account of Libuše – a bold manifestation of national pride and bravery in 1939 in Nazi-occupied Prague

When Franz xaver Richter became member of the famous Mannheim Orchestra in 1746, he found himself in the very centre of the progressive European music scene where a new era was being born in a proverbial melting pot of various influences. However, Richter never gave up his traditional baroque ''craftsmanship'' and after making himself acquainted with the most successful oratorio libretto by G.C. Pasquini, he set it to music entirely within the boundaries of his characteristic style, combining baroque composition principles with the achievements of the nascent classicist style. For this he used the new 1744 version of the lbiretto intended fo J.A. Hasse. La Deposizione, Richter's only Italian oratorio is a Good Friday pondering of Jesus's disciples over God's unconditional love and Christ's suffering on the cross. For the first time it was performed on the Good Friday of 1748 in the Mannheim court church of The Visitation of Our Lady. After the Strassbourg Requiem, this premiere recording is another gemstone that the Czech Ensemble Baroque have added to the mosaic of Richter's remarkable, still little-researched oeuvre.

Before he was completely overwhelmed by love for composing, Leo� Jan�cek pursued a career as a virtuoso pianist. He was closely familiar with the instrument, which served for him to share his innermost emotions and feelings. Jan�cek wrote his first opus, Thema con variazioni, at the age of 26, when he was studying at the Leipzig Conservatory. The miniature piece A Recollection is one of his last scores. The composer conceived his three essential piano works, 1.X. 1905, On an Overgrown Path and In the Mist, between 1900 and 1912, which was a difficult phase in his life. They are perhaps the most personal, most intimate pieces he wrote. Jan�cek was inspired by the sound of the cimbalom, an instrument he often heard when collecting folk songs in Moravia. The genes of the pianist Jan Barto� evidently bear the traces of the ample musical tradition of his ancestors, including his grandfather, a cimbalom player. The legacy of folk music and the Silesian origin is what Jan�cek and Barto� have in common. In his account of Jan�cek's music, the pianist reveals a profound musicological insight, as well as a fascinating intuition - the inspiring integration of the heart and the brain, owing to which Barto�'s previous Supraphon albums (Mozart - Concertos, SU 4234-2; Beethoven - Sonatas, SU 4252-2) have met with such great acclaim.

The composers whose music is featured on the present album lived and worked in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, and their fates were afflicted by the monstrous Nazi regime. Viktor Ullmann, who before WWII held the post of Kapellmeister at the New German Theatre, wrote Quartet No. 3 while he was detained at the Theresienstadt ghetto-camp. Hans Kr�sa completed the Theme and Variations in 1936, yet he only saw it performed in Theresienstadt, along with his children's opera Brundib�r. Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces reveal his zest for rhythm and dance, as well as his evidently having been inspired by the music of the Viennese salons, Italy and Spain. Pavel Haas's Quartet No. 2, dating from 1925, serves as vivid proof of the claim that the composer was the most gifted pupil of Leo� Jan�cek. In October 1944, Haas, Ullmann and Kr�sa were among the thousands of Theresienstadt prisoners transported to Auschwitz, where they would be murdered in the gas chambers. The Bennewitz Quartet launched their international career following their victories at the prestigious competition in Osaka (2005) and the Pr�mio Paolo Borciani in Italy (2008). Ever since they have regularly performed at the world's most prominent venues and festivals. The music of the Theresienstadt composers has found in them splendid performers.

The three pieces the Smetana Trio have selected for their new album came into being within the range of a mere four years, yet they represent three different musical universes. Anton Arensky's piano trio evokes the atmosphere of the 19th-century salons, where music was played to delight the gathered bourgeoisie company. The work Alexander Zemlinsky created at the age of 25 marks the accession of the seeking of new sound and harmony. The one-movement trio Sergei Rachmaninoff, a piano virtuoso and composer rolled into one, wrote when he was 19, teems with elegiac nobleness, which would remain the quintessential trait of the future globetrotter's music. And whereas Arensky's short life was marred by inner turmoil, the paths of Zemlinsky and Rachmaninoff were affected by outer circumstances - both of them died within a year, far away from their respective homelands, in the United States. The world-renowned Smetana Trio performs this works with their typical vivacity and zest.

The legendary Goldberg Variations are among the most frequently recorded Johann Sebastian Bach works; besides numerous versions for piano and harpsichord, there are recordings of transcriptions for other instruments, including the banjo. Even though at first glance the arrangement for wind quartet appears overly distant from the composer's original notion, when listening to it you may have the feeling that Bach himself might have had such an ensemble on his mind when writing the work. The reed instrument timbres wonderfully merge into joint harmony, while their shadings allow for tracing the leading of the individual parts within the polyphonic texture, which is most definitely an advantage as against the original keyboard version. The Aria and the 30 Variations afford sufficient scope for cantilena and foregrounding of the instruments' gracious colours, as well as for showcasing their uttermost virtuosity. The intimate universe of the Goldberg Variations is followed by the festive Suite in C major, BWV 1066, the earliest and the "most French" of Bach's four orchestral suites. The remarkable album has been made by four extraordinary musicians, superb soloists and chamber players, who have adorned some of the most renowned orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Czech Philharmonic.

The very first complete recording of Viktor Kalabis’s piano works, as well as the album of his three sonatas have come to fruition upon the initiative and owing to the relentless enthusiasm of the world-renowned harpsichordist Zuzana Ružicková, the composer’s wife and a keen promoter of his oeuvre. Of major importance was the selection of the pianist – one possessing superlative technical skills and having a profound understanding of the structure of Kalabis’s music. As Ivo Kahánek put it: “Kalabis was one of the composers who don’t restrict their ideas by the traditional laws of the piano technique, hence his music is now and then extremely difficult to perform.” Even though Kalabis drew inspiration from the music of other 20th-century masters, he soon arrived at his own, singular and unique musical idiom, which is already palpable in his early opuses. The album maps more than half a century of Kalabis’s work, from the post-war Sonata No. 1 to the masterful miniatures dating from the very end of the millennium. Following the critically acclaimed recordings of his symphonic and concert pieces, and of the three sonatas, the present album opens yet another window into Viktor Kalabis’s fascinating musical world.

Franti�ek Ign�c Anton�n Tuma was one of the Czech composers to have considerably influenced 18th-century European music. Along with J. D. Zelenka and G T. Muffat, he has been named among the finest pupils of Johann Joseph Fux, and, just like Zelenka, he rubbed shoulders with the political and social elite of his time. He was highly esteemed in Vienna, with his sacred music even serving as a model for younger composers, including Joseph Haydn and W. A. Mozart. A dexterous theorbist and gambist, at the age of 19 Tuma most likely participated in the celebrations marking the coronation in Prague of Emperor Charles VI in 1723. Nineteen years later, in 1742, Tuma's Requiem in c accompanied the soul mass for the self-same monarch on the occasion of the transfer of his remains to the sarcophagus in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. At the time, Tuma worked as Kapellmeister of the music ensemble set up by Charles's widow, Empress Elisabeth Christine. The Requiem in D minor, whose instrumentation was commensurate to the significance of the event (the orchestra was enhanced by a cornett, two trombones, a bassoon and two natural trumpets), was again heard at the funeral of Elisabeth Christine herself, in 1750. Tuma enjoyed great respect on the part of Empress Maria Theresa, who probably personally commissioned from him the Miserere in c. It comes as no surprise that following four acclaimed recordings of F. X. Richter's works Czech Ensemble Baroque have focused on Tuma. His music definitely deserves our attention. A requiem for an Emperor - a breath of new life to an Imperial Kapellmeister.

Traditional Czech and Moravian carols, Christmas canticles from Czech Baroque hymnbooks, old European Advent and Christmas songs, and Jaroslav Krcek's original songs. The highly acclaimed Christmas album Nativitas is now joined by a new festive album, bearing the title Exaltatio. While in Colloquial Latin the word means "exaltation" and "elation", in Christian theology it has a more profound connotation: "elevation". The mezzo-soprano Dagmar Peckov� has recorded yet another Christmas-themed album, featuring Czech and other European carols and folk songs hailing the Nativity. At Christmas, people feel much closer to one another than at any other time of the year, and it has been so for centuries. The special seasonal atmosphere is what French, German, English and Polish songs have in common. Peckov� has again reached for Baroque hymnbooks, in which piety combines with a majestic sublime mood. The album also encompasses much more high-spirited and poetic folk carols. Jaroslav Krcek has made stylistic arrangements, whose singular signature relates to Musica Bohemica. The release features several Baroque-inspired pieces he himself has composed. The magic of Christmas evidently continues to be celebrated by contemporary creators. Dagmar Peckov�'s new Christmas album: 30 carols and songs from Bohemia, Moravia and other European regions

Josef Myslivecek has most frequently been mentioned in connection with W. A. Mozart (who, for a certain time, viewed him as a model and inspiration) and is best known for his operas. At the age of 26, he left Prague for Italy, where four years later, in Naples, he celebrated his first triumph, with the opera Il Bellerofonte (1767). A prolific and gifted composer, Myslivecek also wrote instrumental music, including symphonies and chamber pieces. His first cycle of string quartets was published in Paris in 1768, the final one in Amsterdam, shortly after his death. These works were often performed in extended formations as symphonies. Myslivecek's quartets are characterized by wonderfully refined slow middle movements. Even more unique are his oboe quintets. For a long time, they were only known owing to Leopold Mozart's reference to them in a letter to his son Wolfgang, dated October 1777 - Myslivecek wanted Leopold Mozart to offer his quintets and other pieces to the Archbishop of Salzburg. Only due to the initiative of the performers featured on this album, primarily the oboist Michaela Hrab�nkov� and V�clav Dvor�k, the first violinist of the Dole�al Quartet, have the missing oboe parts for three of the six quintets been retrieved in private collections across Europe. The CD thus contains world premiere recordings of rediscovered Myslivecek works, whose significance is further enhanced by a stylistically sensitive interpretation. Our picture of "Il divino Boemo", whom the renowned music historian Charles Burney ranked alongside such masters as Hasse, Gluck and Haydn, is now more complete - and more beautiful. Previously unheard Myslivecek: newly rediscovered oboe quintets

The name Vil�m Veverka is familiar to everyone who has fallen for the enchanting tone of the oboe. His path to virtuosity commenced with accolades at international competitions, and continued with gaining experience with the Berliner Philharmoniker, performances with chamber formations (Ensemble Berlin Prag, PhiHarmonia Octet), and building up an extensive repertoire, ranging from Baroque to contemporary works, a number of which he himself has premiered. Yet Vil�m's horizon is even wider - his ambition is to present the oboe in a context different from that which we are accustomed to. Following several "classical" summits (Telemann, Britten, Vivaldi, Zelenka, Bach, etc.), he has made another of his dreams come true in the form of this crossover album. It would seem that the need to transcend borders is deeply encoded in his DNA. And so you will find side by side Bach, the "classics" of the second half of the 20th century (Morricone, Piazzolla, �birka, etc.), and also compositions Martin Hybler wrote for the present album. Everything has been thought through, every single detail refined. As Vil�m himself put it, the recording documents "the compulsion of a performer to seek new paths unceasingly", it is "a report on a new beginning, on the next of a series of horizons beheld."

At age 20, Jirí Vodicka won the European round of the Young Concert Artists competition, and a year later came second in its global final in New York. + A member of the celebrated Smetana Trio since 2012, he is currently one of the most distinguished young violinists on both a Czech and international scale. + Choosing a solo violin virtuoso repertoire for one’s debut album requires a fair amount of audacity and, above all, brilliant technique and musicality. + His choice was to be amidst the illustrious company of Paganini, Kreisler, Ysaÿe, Ernst, Haas and Bach.

• Czech tenor Štefan Margita in a recital of crossover music • Draws from several sources and nationalities to create a diversified album sure to delight old and new fans of Mr. Margita alike • The Orchestra, conducted by Jan Kučera and the Kühn Mixed Choir led by chorusmaster Marek Vorlíček the lush and dramatic background