... Storace gave a quartet party to his friends. The players were tolerable, not one of them excelled on the instrument he played; but there was a little science among them, which I dare say will be acknowledged when I name them: First violin Haydn, second violin Baron Dittersdorf, violoncello Vanhal, viola Mozart... The tenor Michael Kelly's recollection of that musical evening in 1784 in Vienna has been the source of much speculation by musicologists, and it is also one of the things that inspired this recording. The four composers, all highly acclaimed in their day, met in multiethnic Vienna, and they shared the bond of friendship. While Mozart behaved towards Haydn with respect like that of a pupil towards a master and dedicated a series of six string quartets to him (including the "Dissonant Quartet" in C major), Haydn told Mozart's father that his son was "the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name." Dittersdorf was likewise unsparing with superlatives in his autobiography: "He is undoubtedly one of the greatest original geniuses, and I have never before known any composer with such an amazing wealth of ideas." The names of Dittersdorf and Vanhal are familiar to some, but few have encountered their music. This recording offers an opportunity to discover those nearly forgotten masters' works superbly interpreted by the Bennewitz Quartet. The enthusiastic acclaim of international critics for their previous Haydn album is affirmation of their extraordinary quality in this repertoire. More remarkable discoveries from the hand of the Bennewitz Quartet

Won't nearly an hour and three quarters of music for violin and piano by the same composer be too monotonous? No it won't because it is Dvorak... Dvorak never repeated himself; in every work, he created a different musical world. It would be hard to find another composer capable of such diversity within a single musical genre. After the earliest of the pieces, the Romance, he sent his publisher Simrock the Mazurek, which he dedicated to the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. The almost meditative Nocturne first appeared in a string quartet and then a quintet before being heard for the first time as an independent piece in arrangements including one for violin and piano. The Violin Sonata in F major, a chamber music pendant to Dvorak's Violin Concerto, clearly took inspiration from Brahms's First Violin Sonata. And there is more: the virtuosic Capriccio, the haunting Romantic Pieces, the Slavonic Dance No. 2 presented here uniquely in the composer's own arrangement, the delightful Humoresque arranged by Fritz Kreisler... and a work bearing the opus number 100, which Dvorak deliberately reserved for his Sonatina dedicated to two of his children; though simple, it is no less individual than any of the composer's other mature opuses. To sum it all up, this is a unique collection of Dvorak's complete works for violin and piano recorded by the virtuoso Jiri Vodicka, concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic, sensitively accompanied by David Marecek at the piano. The recording is enhanced by the beautiful acoustics of the Rudolfinum's Dvorak Hall in Prague. Dvorak for violin and piano. A new world of music in every composition.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Bach could hardly have imagined how popular his cycle of Six Suites for Cello Solo would become nearly 300 years after he finished writing them in C�then. There are more than 200 existing historical and contemporary recordings of "informed" and "modern" interpretations - that tells it all. The music makes extraordinary demands on players' technical and interpretive ability and their overall comprehension. In the suites, Bach managed to create music that is highly innovative (it is worth noting that the cello was still developing at the time), and yet he retained his stylistic purity and comprehensibility. While these are formally dance suites, the architecture of some of them is more like that of a cathedral, in part thanks to the wealth of contrapuntal writing. They are a great challenge for everyone who has mastered the cello, Sa�a Vectomov included. His first teacher was his father (he studied in Paris with Piatigorsky and Fournier and with Casals's assistant Alexanian). The playing of the young Vectomov was then strongly influenced by Rostropovich's teacher Semyon Kozolupov at the Moscow Conservatoire and by Andr� Navarra in Italy. Besides his solo career, he also excelled at playing chamber music (Czech Trio, City of Prague Quartet) and was an equally wonderful teacher. For the recording of the Bach suites that he made in Prague at the Rudolfinum in the summer of 1984, he prepared himself for several years. In 1980, for example, he played the whole cycle from memory at a single concert. His recording can be characterized as having unmistakable beauty of tone, perfect intonation, and brilliant technique, but above all it is the deep comprehension of the "text" and the immediacy of the musicianship that make this recording something timeless and exceptional. Bach - Cello Suites: timeless music on a timeless recording.

Jan Novák’s oeuvre has not received the attention it undoubtedly deserves. His music is noted for its lightness, elegance, humor and slight provocation, and, in addition to Martinů and jazz, was inspired by Latin, which he perfectly mastered and applied (almost exclusively) in his works. The young Martinů Voices ensemble presents Jan Novák’s choral pieces, with two of them released on CD for the very first time. A special guest on the album is the composer’s daughter, flautist Clara Nováková.

Classical Music

The sixth part of the Bed�ich Smetana complete piano works series presents pieces composed in the 1840s, the time of the composer's intensive studies and the Dedicated to various persons (including Kate�ina Kola�ova, Smetana's great love and future wife) are the Stammbuchblatter, lovely commemorative album leaves. Some of the pieces (Romance in B flat major, Woodland Feelings and Impressions) were published immediately, others were revised B. Smetana and published later. Also dating from this period are the composer's first larger virtuoso pieces (Allegro capriccioso, Caprice in G minor) and major work, the cycle Six m sent the autograph to Franz Liszt, who accepted the dedication with pleasure. The nimble hands of the pianist Jitka �echova make ring the sheer virtuosity and engrossing poetics of the young Smetana's piano works.

Launching his Mozart debut recorded with the Czech Philharmonic and Jir� Belohl�vek, Jan Barto� drew to himself a lot of critical attention on an international scale. Those who reviewed the album especially appreciated his rare ability to combine thorough understanding both of the musical architecture and the deep emotionality of the works (a quality possessed also by the pianist's tutors Ivan Moravec and Alfred Brendel). From the early "Haydn-like" Sonata No. 3 in C major to the highly dramatic "Appassionata" to the transcendent last Sonata No. 32 in C minor, which gives an impression of the composer parting with this world, the pianist facilitates to us the amazing integrity and colorfulness of Beethoven's piano work. During the thirty years separating his first and last piano opus, the composer tried out numberless experiments, and yet some crucial themes come up again and again; the imprint of his unique musical DNA is discernible from his very first opuses. In the hands of Jan Barto�, Beethoven whispers, sings and thunders. We encounter a world full of contrasts, an image whose colors remain impressed in our memory for a long time.

In contrast to Symphony No. 8, also known as the "Symphony of a Thousand", another of Gustav Mahler's vocal-instrumental pieces, Das Lied von der Erde, speaks in a highly intimate language, full of tenderness and deep sorrow, mirroring the very essence of the artist's soul towards the end of his days. The grief, reflecting the painful events in the composer's life and expressed in a variety of shades in all the six songs, seems to dissolve at the end of the work in the repeated, atoned "forever", a word opening up the infinite space following the life on earth. The internationally renowned Czech mezzo-soprano Dagmar Peckova has always cherished Mahler's music, as evinced by the highly acclaimed recordings she has made with Jiri Belohlavek, conducting the Prague Philharmonia. Her partners on the album are the tenor Richard Samek, whose voice is known to audiences at Europe's prominent opera houses, and a chamber ensemble, instead of a large Romantic orchestra, for which Mahler scored the piece. In order to emphasise the work's intimacy, Peckova opted for Schoenberg's chamber arrangement of Das Lied von der Erde. The recording has made the soloist's dream come true, and thus added the final piece in the mosaic of her feted Mahler discography.

Backed up by the Czech Philharmonic, the 85-year-old Richard Novák sings the part of the Forester from the Cunning Little Vixen in a way that leaves you gaping in admiration. His performance is a witness not only to his singing skill, but also his life experience. The fact that he was lucky to find great music teachers has combined with persistence and hard work on his part. He was not afraid to interrupt his singing career at its apparent height when he felt his voice was losing inner support, and start anew. In 1961 he won second place in a singing competition in Toulouse (with José van Dame taking the first place) and became a laureate in the competition held in the Dutch city of Hertogenbosch in 1962. Dvorák, Verdi and Janácek represent the three supporting pillars of his repertoire and at the same time his three major musical loves. Novák sang as a guest in Teatro Colón, at the Salzburg Festival under Claudio Abbado and also appeared on prestigious stages in Paris, Madrid and Venice. He has collaborated with many outstanding conductors, having sung oratorios under Ancerl and Neumann and recorded the Glagolitic Mass with both Mackerras and Chailly. One must not forget to mention his beloved song repertoire including works by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Kricka, and, first and foremost, Dvorák’s Biblical Songs.

If you ask oboists about the golden age of their instrument, they will in all likelihood refer to the first half of the 18th century. It was the time when a plethora of music for the oboe was written - solo and trio sonatas, concertos, cantatas... No court orchestra could make do without the instrument. Many of these pieces were created by the three most feted late-Baroque composers: Antonio Vivaldi (he conceived about two dozen concertos for solo oboe!), J. S. Bach, and his friend G. P. Telemann, who is deemed one of the most prolific composers of all time. Although dating from the same period, the works by the three creators represent three very different worlds. Yet that which they have in common is their virtuosity and the associated high technical demands placed upon the soloist. Besides Ensemble 18+ and his musical soul-mate, the harpsichordist Barbara Maria Willi, Vil�m Veverka invited along as a guest to participate in this dream project his teacher and colleague Dominik Wollenweber, oboist of the Berliner Philharmoniker. With this new album, Veverka has confirmed his firm position among the most acclaimed oboists on the international scale. "Vil�m Veverka breathes new life into concertos by three Baroque masters."