A unique demonstration of massed instrumental playing, featuring no less than 48 violinists under the baton of Geoffrey Simon. Three of London's finest sections drive the concept of the violin ensemble to new heights in these innovative, hugely sonorous treatments of repertoire from Debussy to Gershwin. "Monti's Csardas of course sounds appropriately passionate: and when it gets going the 48 players clearly enjoy their own virtuosity: the result is exhilarating" (Gramophone) "Stand out track is Shostakovich's Romance from The Gadfly which demonstrates how an effective melody can benefit from an arrangement sympathetic to colorful harmonies" (Classic CD)

For four decades, Marie Podvalová (1909–1992) was one of the most popular and sought-after opera singers of the National Theatre in Prague, where she was engaged from 1937 to 1978. She dazzled in the part of Bedrich Smetana’s Libuše, which she created in 1938 under the guidance of the conductor Václav Talich, as well as in the roles of Milada in Dalibor and Anežka in Two Widows. She also appeared in Dvorák operas, performing to acclaim Armida, the Foreign Princess in Rusalka and Julie in The Jacobin, and in Janácek works, primarily excelling as Kostelnicka in Jenufa.

Supraphon is for the first time releasing the complete studio recordings Marie Podvalová made between 1939 and 1950. The set encompasses three songs from the collection Venec ze zpevu vlasteneckých (A Garland of Patriotic Songs, 1835–1844), which she performs accompanied on the piano by J. B. Foerster. It contains Marie Podvalová’s final, previously unreleased, studio recording, with the soprano singing Beatrice in a scene from Zdenek Fibich’s opera The Bride of Messina. The album also captures the voices of Jan Konstantin, Jindrich Blažícek, Marta Krásová, Ivo Žídek, Jaroslav Gleich, Zdenek Otava, Štepánka Jelínková, Jaroslav Jaroš, Josef Otakar Masák, Maria Tauberová, Ludek Mandaus, Stanislav Muž, and other singers. The Prague Symphony Orchestra and the National Theatre Orchestra are conducted by Rudolf Vašata, Zdenek Chalabala, Jaroslav Krombholc, František Škvor, Zdenek Folprecht, Otakar Jeremiáš and Karel Nedbal. The release marks the 30th anniversary of the legendary artist’s death.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has travelled far and wide, as an international opera star and an Armenian who was born in Lebanon, immigrated to Canada, and is now settled in southern California. Her life is a journey that informs her new recording, La Zingarella: Through Romany Songland. “The music transcends geography,” she says. “It taps into human nature and unites us all. It’s about freedom of the spirit, about living life without knowing what tomorrow holds. It’s about enjoying every single minute.” Isabel embarked on an album of art songs that draw on Romani melodies – Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder, Dvorák’s Cigánské Melodie, Bizet’s Habanera – and while those appear here, her journey also led to a wealth of recherché gems.

The title track by French composer Maurice Yvain commingles with fellow-operetta composers Franz Lehár (‘Lied und Csárdás’ from Zigeunerliebe), Emmerich Kálmán (‘Heia, heia, in den Bergen’ from The Csárdás Princess) and Victor Herbert ("Gypsy Love Song" from The Fortune Teller). Two South American Gypsy Songs by American folk song collector Henry F.B. Gilbert set words by ethnomusicologist Laura Alexandrine Smith, whose book lends the album its subtitle. The ever-adventurous Isabel commissioned new arrangements for the songs on this album, with violin, viola, cello, and piano lending a laser beam lucidity to the music that “has a lot of fire in it,” she says with a glint in her eye.

REVIEWS:

Bayrakdarian reigns supreme here. She is nominally a soprano, but her range extends well below the treble staff. She takes on Liszt’s opening `3 Gypsies’ and the succeeding Brahms and Dvorak sets with assurance, and when she moves on to Sebastian Iradier she cleverly follows his `Habanera’ with Bizet’s, so obviously based on it and so obviously a natural improvement in carrying the opening scale further down. The latter half of the disc is excerpts from operettas: Maurice Yvain’s Chanson Gitane, Franz Lehar’s Zigeunerliebe, Emmerich Kalman’s Czardasfurstin, and Victor Herbert’s Fortune Teller. The distance from Romany originals is greatest here, and yet I hear, not cultural appropriation, but cultural appreciation.

-- American Record Guide

Bayrakdarian is in fine voice and exuberant high spirits for these mostly high-spirited selections, yet poignant or sensuous when appropriate. This exhilarating cross-cultural excursion is enthusiastically recommended.

-- The Whole Note (Canada)

ArcoDiva presents this new unique album of Dvořák's unreleased pieces. Despite the fact that at the moment there are many recordings of piano works by Antonín Dvořák, for whatever reason some compositions have never been included on these releases. We are now gladly presenting you those pieces for the first time on a publicly released album. All of the compositions are played by Tomáš Víšek.

Víšek is one of the most significant Czech pianists of his generation. Born in 1957, he studied at the Prague Conservatory (prof. V. Kameníková, Z. Kožina) and the Prague Academy of Arts (AMU) – first under prof. J. Páleníček and then under prof. Z. Jílek with whom he continued post-graduate studies in 1990–1993. In 2017, he obtained the Ph.D. title at the Pedagogical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague (his dissertation was titled “Attraction and Problems of the Antonín Dvořák ́s Piano Works”).

Individuality that unfolds in the common effort – it is here that we are likely to find the secret of the Vogler Quartet, an ensemble that has pursued a unique career with the same membership ever since 1985. “The Vogler Quartet demonstrates that homogeneity, tonal warmth, and rich sonority need not stand in opposition to transparency and clarity. This is congenial performing on a benchmark level!” This is what klassik-heute wrote of the preceding release in our edition of Dvorák’s quartets. We are now presenting Dvorák’s Quartets Nos. 2 and 5 and the Terzett op. 74 on Vol. 4 in this edition with these highly acclaimed interpreters. To paraphrase Hartmut Schick, the author of the most important German-language monograph on Dvorák’s quartets, the formal idea to return to the essential themes of the preceding movements in the finale of a cyclical work in order to form a summation from them at the end played a significant role in Dvorák’s composition of instrumental music in more than one movement. In his last works, such as his ninth symphony, he developed this process to its fullest potential, and it is also a factor in his young Quartet No. 2. In his Quartet No. 5, however, the composer again sought close contact with the Classical quartet tradition. Nevertheless, it is unusual that all four movements of the quartet are in F minor. His Terzett op. 74 is not a four-movement sonata cycle but a freer collection of four character pieces. This was the way that Dvorák stylized Slavic folk music: In the main part he interlocks 2/4 time and 3/4 time in the manner of a furiant. The theme of the A major trio has a second beat with syncopated accentuation and resultant lengthening pointing to closeness to the slow mazurka type. The last movement is formed by a series of variations on a theme invented by Dvorák in the manner of an instrumental recitative and then varied a total of eleven times.

To mark the 180th anniversary of Antonín Dvorák’s birth, Supraphon has released a special 3-album set. Presenting a wide selection of the composer’s chamber, orchestral and vocal works, it contains recordings made by superb musicians in the second half of the 20th century that are still exemplary and unrivalled in many a respect. Dvorák is paid tribute to by renowned Czech Philharmonic conductors (Talich, Ancerl, Neumann, Belohlávek, Sawallisch, Mackerras, and others), instrumentalists (Rostropovich, May, Suk and Panenka), singers (Soukupová, Benacková, Urbanová, Blachut, Novák), choirmasters (Jan and Pavel Kühn), as well as the Prague, Dvorák, Smetana and Panocha Quartets. The album’s repertoire was compiled by Patrick Lambert, a former long-time music editor and BBC Radio 3 producer, a great lover and connoisseur of Czech music, who focused on the themes to which Antonín Dvorák had a strong, passionate affinity: the Nation and Homeland, the Slavonic Soul, Nature, God and Religion, Family and Humour. Besides widely known opuses (yet in lesser-known recordings), the album features many beautiful Dvorák pieces that are not performed overly often, including the cycles In Nature’s Realm, Love Songs and Poetic Moods, the Serenade for Wind Instruments, and scenes from the operas Dimitrij and The Jacobin. As Patrick Lambert puts it: “The new album is for everyone who wants to revel in the sheer diversity and profundity of Dvorák’s music.” Antonín Dvorák at his most beautiful – through the eyes of a great connoisseur and lover of his music

After the success of the recent recording of works by Veress and Bartók, which won both a Gramophone Award and a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2020, the Lockenhaus Festival series, curated by its artistic director Nicolas Altstaedt, continues its journey through central Europe with Antonín Dvorák and his famous ‘Dumky’ Trio, named after a genre of Slavonic folksong generally performed by blind wandering minstrels who accompanied themselves on the kobza or bandura (twelve-string lute). Dvorák, whose father played the zither, immersed himself in this music and creatively translated its substance into his own music. The trio was premiered in 1891 and, in response to its ecstatic reception, Dvorák decided to perform it during his grand farewell tour before leaving for the United States. Zoltán Kodály’s Duo for violin and cello (1914), which completes the program, also bears witness to the influence of folk music.

REVIEWS:

Barnabás Kelemen has the passion, the imagination, the intelligence, the sense of place and ethnicity, the style, and the allfacilitating technique to bring the 'earth and-air' masterpieces of Bartók and Kodály fully to life, the loose-limbed manner of his phrasing as flexible as any folk fiddler, his tonal range and the agility of his bow varying from bar to bar. No player currently treading the boards is quite as exciting and this extraordinary disc finds him in intimate and animated musical conversation with like-minded musicians.

– Gramophone

Every phrase is carefully considered, and each one is communicated with passion. Everywhere there is a wealth of fascinating detail…Some may find the players’ approach a little too intense, but for wholehearted commitment these performances are outstanding.

After a first recital album devoted to Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Denisov in the company of the pianist Jonas Vitaud, Victor Julien-Laferrière now presents two cello concertos by Antonín Dvorák (op.104) and Bohuslav Martinu (no.1, H196), accompanied by the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gergely Madaras.

Dvorak had an ambivalent relationship with Classical and Romantic traditions, something that is clearly exemplified in his piano trios. The Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90 is a daring late work that uses popular moods and freer forms consisting of six Dumky – a melancholic and poetic musical form that draws from the composer inexhaustible melodic creativity. The Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65 was influenced by the death of the composer’s mother and also by Dvorak having heard Brahms’ Piano Quintet, Op. 34, a work composed in the same key. Cyclic elements and fiery drama permeate the writing. “Individually excellent, they are even more impressive together”, wrote the Gazzetta di Mantova after a concert by the Italian-Swiss Trio des Alpes, thereby describing one of this Trio’s essential qualities: three independent, all-round successful personalities meeting as a trio. What attracts them is the quintessence of chamber music: dialogue, a shared sound and the blending of three instruments into a single whole.

The contents of this release present a selection of roughly a century of Czech choral works performed by Prague Mixed Choir and soloists. The wealth of choral works left to us by Czech composers is very rich and amazing - this new album features pieces of Antonín Dvorák, Vítezslav Novák, Bohuslav Martinu and Zdenek Lukáš. Prague Mixed Choir has long been one of the top Czech non-professional choirs. It has enjoyed much success at home and abroad and has won several awards at prestigious choral competitions, including the international competition Praga Cantat. In addition to its domestic concerts, the choir proudly performs Czech music on foreign concert tours, of which it has completed more than sixty to date. These include visits to most European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, Israel, China, and Egypt.

Antonín Dvořák’s music, imbued with the spirit of Bohemia, reflects a love of his native land. His String Sextet, written in the distinctive style which brought him international fame, was an immediate success at its premiere. Composed just eight years earlier, his String Quartet No.4, unpublished until 1968, features pioneering, wild outer movements, highly unusual for the time, which foreshadowed the modernist innovations of composers decades later. A moving Andante religioso, which Dvořák made use of in future works, lies at its heart. The Polonaise exploits both the soulful and virtuoso character of the cello.

REVIEW:

It’s about time that Dvořák’s fascinating and gripping Fourth Quartet got some individual attention apart from big boxes of the chamber works. A single movement more than 30 minutes long, in three extended sections, the music reveals the influence of Wagner and the New German School. It represents a road not taken, as Dvořák never followed it up, and immediately afterward returned to a path at once more “classical”, formally speaking, while pursuing its harmonic audacities within the bounds of a Czech nationalist style. This last point is important. Dvořák never gave up his love for adventurous harmony. He merely ceased imitating Wagner’s particular version of it, and in the process he found himself.

In any case, the central Andante religioso survived to become the lovely Notturno for string orchestra. It sounds like a cross between Rachmaninov and the Siegfried Idyll, only it predates both! There’s no question that Dvořák was very good at what he was doing. The quartet’s outer sections also invite comparison to late Beethoven, with their sometimes gnarly counterpoint and sense of struggle. In short, the work deserves to return to the repertoire, and the only reason I can see that it hasn’t is because it doesn’t sound like typical Dvořák. Happily, the Fine Arts Quartet does an excellent job allowing the music to unfold on its own terms, offering sensitive, well-balanced, and timbrally vibrant playing that sustains the piece over its entire length.

The Sextet of 1878 (eight years after the Fourth Quartet) shows the composer in full nationalist mode, with a “Dumka” slow movement and a “Furiant” for a scherzo. Its concluding theme and variations is especially outstanding. Here is yet another work that, however frequently recorded, has not received the attention that it deserves in concert, perhaps because sextets are awkward to program. The concluding Polonaise in A major makes a fine encore to an unusually well-rounded program, one that presents Dvořák as a composer of much wider range than many would have us believe. The title of the disc, Spirit of Bohemia, is typically silly and not entirely relevant, but with fine engineering I can recommend this release without hesitation.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

The members of Trio Imàge stumbled upon this score by chance and were thrilled to incorporate it into their repertoire: “This early work of a mostly forgotten composer nevertheless features a series of astounding, imaginative ideas and innovations: this music is brimming with youthful emotion and lively virtuosity, along with interspersed elements of Vienna folklore and a vague presentiment of decades of terror looming on the horizon.” A current representative of the same tendency is the young accordionist, dancer, arranger, and composer Marek Dyakov, who, in his works, combines folklore elements with jazz harmonies and classical means of expression. Perperikoana belongs to Ancient Bulgarian Legends, a four-part cycle dedicated to Trio Imàge. The piece displays strong associations with the music of the Rhodope Mountains, home of the Perperikon, an ancient sacred rocky hill: the landscapes of that beautiful region, with their great variety, find their echo in the piece’s polyphonic structure. The title also contains a personal dedication to Ana, Dyakov’s wife.

'From the New World' is the subtitle of Dvorak's famous Symphony No. 9, implying a departure into a new musical world and representing a bridge between the European and American music traditions and their influences. Dvorak's music shares the programme with works by Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. These new organ transcriptions are performed by Hansjörg Albrecht on the Organ system (large organ, concert organ, echo organ) of the main church St. Michaelis in Hamburg. Hansjörg Albrecht is – besides Ton Koopman, Masaaki Suzuki, Martin Haselböck and Wayne Marshall – one of the few artists who are regularly present internationally both as conductor and concert organist. He is considered a musical innovator and lateral thinker without fear of contact. As a conductor, he consistently follows his own paths – between archive and new creation and with an extensive repertoire from Bach to Messiaen – and with his organ transcriptions he has established himself as a specialist among the virtuosos of his instrument.

REVIEW:

Pride of place here are the two arguably greatest works written by a European on American soil and an American on European soil. However, these are preceded by two remarkable transcriptions. First comes a boisterous version of Dvorák’s Carnival overture, made by another European emigrant to America, Edwin Lemare, which shows off Albrecht’s virtuosity. Then comes John Fesperman’s transcription of Copland’s Passacaglia, which gives us a fabulous Cook’s tour of many of the organ’s weirder and more wonderful sounds.

Barber’s Adagio for Strings works very well in this transcription by William Strickland; and while the bulk of the sound is, naturally enough, created by the string tone, Albrecht’s judicious employment of flutes gives it a comfortable, idiomatic feel. My only reservation is the bulky pedal stop which anchors it rather too solidly.

The transcription of Dvorák’s Ninth Symphony is by Zsigmond Szathmáry, and makes considerable demands on both the organ and the player. The generous acoustic of St Michael’s Church, Hamburg, possibly covers a multitude of sins, and perhaps some intricate detail gets lost in this highly atmospheric recording, but Albrecht has a powerful vision for the work and is superb in recreating what are distinctly orchestral textures. He is particularly impressive in conveying the dancelike vigour of the final movement. Above all, he moves across the mindboggling specification of this organ (by my reckoning, there are some 150 stops to play with) with the fluidity of the River Elbe.

-- Gramophone

Celebrating their 100th anniversary, the London Chamber Orchestra release a live recording taken from a highly-celebrated performance at Cadogan Hall, London in 2019, featuring three sublime works for string orchestra. When you go to an LCO concert, you do not just go to listen to a concert, you go to experience a performance and this live recording is no exception. Christopher Warren- Green and the orchestra capture the quintessential ‘Englishness’ of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and explore the emotional and musical connection between Suk and Dvorák's Serenade for Strings.

REVIEW:

Sometimes you just need to be reminded how lovely certain music can be. With more that 70 minutes of lovingly performed, warmly recorded music for strings, this is truly a recording to both stir and soothe the soul, delivering whatever your soul might need during these difficult days.

– Classical Candor

This album is dedicated to Czech composers. The first is Antonin Dvorak, who wrote his Moravian Duets in 1875 and 1876. The original idea was to arrange folk melodies from the collection of Frantisek Susil, but Dvorak eventually decided to use just the folk texts, setting them to music by himself. The resulting work in a way marked the beginning of his worldwide recognition. Although the genre of duets for two women’s voices and piano is well known today thanks chiefly to Dvorak, in its time it was cultivated by other composers too. Among them by Dvorak’s contemporary and friend Karel Bendl, whose “Dvanact dvojzpevu” (Twelve Duets) are settings of mostly lyrical texts by Vitezslav Halek from the collection “V prirode” (In Nature) and were probably written in the second half of the 1870s. The last cycle is The Slovak Duets by one of the most important contemporary Czech composers Sylvie Bodorova. Working with the rhythmic aspect of her music and layering her polyphony are typical features of her approach. She has also found inspiration in Roma, Jewish, and contemporary approach to folk (especially East European and Balkan) music, as well as other areas of the music of our time. The works here are sung by Hana Dobesova and Michaela Rozsa Ruzickova, accompanied by pianist Ladislava Vondrackova, and were recorded live at Martinu Hall, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Old Souls presents masterworks of Beethoven, Dvorák, Wolf and Kreisler in new arrangements for flute and strings, played by a group of outstanding young musicians. Guy Braunstein’s arrangements display these well-known pieces in a fresh new light, while simultaneously expanding the flute repertoire and showcasing the exceptional possibilities of the instrument, here played by Gili Schwarzman. Braunstein and Schwarzman are joined by violinist Susanna Yoko Henkel, violist Amihai Grosz and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. While the arrangement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Op. 23 entails a thorough recomposition of the original, the performances of Dvorák’s “American” String Quartet, Wolf’s “Italian” Serenade and Kreisler’s Syncopation stay closer to the source, with the flute taking up the role originally played by the first violin. The use of the flute creates novel sonic sensations through the way it blends with the strings, and at times gives the pieces a sparkle they did not have before. Guy Braunstein expands his PENTATONE discography, after having already released Tchaikovsky Treasures in 2019. Alisa Weilerstein presented Transfigured Night in 2018 as the first fruit of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE.

REVIEW:

The first composition on the disc, Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.4, is a masterful orchestration for flute and string quartet. Braunstein did not merely assign the notes of the piano part, according to their pitch, to the corresponding instruments, but rewrote it for string quartet. One could be forgiven for assuming that it was an original composition by Beethoven himself.

The performances are energetic and nuanced, models of musical artistry. My favourite moment in the entire CD is the second movement of Dvo?ák’s String Quartet Op.96, which sounds absolutely natural played on the flute. The long, languorous melodic line, as played by Schwarzman, is never rushed and at the same time, never loses energy.

– The Whole Note (CA)