Martinů - Complete Piano Works Nos.1-3 (Giorgio Koukl)

Complete piano works (7 CDs) of Bohuslav Martinů by Giorgio Koukl (born 1953, Prague, Czechoslovakia), pianist and harpsichordist who lives in Lugano in southern Switzerland. This performance is marked by rhythmic precision, meticulous voicing, and a clean, clear sound that is distinct and audible. Koukl deftly switches between the extremely varied demands of the pieces, from the more virtuosic to the charming character pieces. This complete survey is highly recommended not only for fans of Martinů's music, but also for those who appreciate superb solo piano playing.

MP1
                                                   

Janáček - Complete Chamber & Orchestral Work

5 CD set of complete chamber and orchestral works of Leoš Janáček by various artists: Wiener Philharmoniker, Sir Charles Mackerras, London Philharmonic Orchestra, François Huybrechts, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Neville Marriner, Paul Crossley (piano), Gabrieli String Quartet, members of the London Sinfonietta, London Sinfonietta Chorus, Eva Urbanová (soprano), Marta Beňačková (mezzo-soprano),Vladimir Bogachov (tenor), Richard Novák (bass), Thomas Trotter (organ), Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Riccardo Chailly, Kenneth Sillito (violin).

JCW

Martinů - Cello Concertos Nos.1 & 2

Martinů's two cello concertos recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Angerlica May under conducting of Václav Neumann. It is mmediately recognizable voice. Martinů's music is a cross between Neo-Romanticism and the neo-Baroque, while his melody is intensely lyrical and draws some inspiration from Czech folk music. Recurring syncopated fragments are often the defining characteristic of his faster movements. The music and the performances here are more than do the music justice and this outstanding release would serve as good a place as any to illuminate Martinů's highly attractive compositional style.

MCC

Martinů - Cello Sonatas Nos.1-3

Bohuslav Martinů (8 December 1890, Polička – 28 August 1959, Liestahl) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He was very prolific, writing almost 400 pieces, among them 6 symphonies, choral works, operas, concertos, including for cello, violin, oboe and five for the piano and his chamber music, including seven string quartets. His artistic history content more creative periods, incl. postimpresionism, neo-classicism, expressionism etc.

MCS

Hába - String Quartets

Alois Hába (June 21, 1893, Vizovice – November 18, 1973, Prague) was a Czech composer, musical theoretician, teacher and organiser, one of the creators of microtonal systems. His most significant innovative contribution to European music is his reworking of the tonality into quarter, six, twelve, and five tone systems, which come from the Moravian folk tradition.

HSQ

Kabeláč - Improvisación sobre Hamlet, Invenciónes para percusión

Hamlet Improvisation for large orchestra, Op. 46 (1962-63) and 8 Invenzioni for percussion instruments (by Prague Percussion Ensemble), Op. 45 (1962-63) by Miloslav Kabeláč (1908 -1979), the most original personality of Czech modern music of second half of 20th century.

KHI

Janáček - Glagolitic Mass, Taras Bulba

Leoš Janáček´s "Glagolitic Mass"- Mass for Soloists, Mixed Choir, Organ and Orchestra - is a "mass of life". Janáček had determined to give expression to that belief in God which had not shown itself in his work before. He got back a tart postcard: "No old man, and no believer—till I see for myself." Janáček detested large churches: ". . . concentrated death; tombs under the floor, bones on the altar, pictures which are nothing but torture and dying". His cathedral was the Luhačovice forest, its incense the fragrance from the moist earth, its bells those from a flock of sheep. "I hear...in the choir the voice of our people. The candles—tall firs of the forest lit up with stars; and during the ceremony I see the vision of St. Wenceslas, and hear the language of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius". The Glagolitic Mass is certainly a visionary work, composer´s immaginatoion of raw roots of Christianity in Slavic people, mixed with paganic customs, inimitable opus, going to the origin of musical language. This recording is performed by L.Domanínská-soprano, V.Soukupová-contralto, B.Blachut-tenor, E.Haken-bass, J.Vodrážka-organ, Prague Philharmonic Choir, J.Veselka, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Karel Ančerl. This recording was awarded by Grand prix du disque de L'Academie Charles Cros. Karel Ančerl (1908 - 1973) was, alongside Václav Talich, part of the tandem of two foremost Czech conductors of the 20th century. As he made an overwhelming majority of his recordings for Supraphon, and since we are approaching the thirtieth anniversary of his death, this company has decided to pay a special tribute to Ančerl´s memory by a grandly conceived project of reissues of his creations, under the common heading of Ančerl Gold Series. It is to comprise a total of 42 titles, each of which will undergo complex studio overhaul and streamlining.

JGM

Martinů - Three Fragments and Suite From the Opera Juliette

Three Fragments and Suite From the Opera Juliette of Bohuslav Martinů, performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by sir Charles Mackerras, with soloist Magdalena Kožená (mezzosoprano). Juliette is Martinu's operatic masterpiece and one of the most distinctive of all 20th-century operatic works. The plot is hallucinatory and wonderfully weird. Charles Mackerras delivers his usual outstanding results, the Czech Philharmonic plays amazingly, and the principal singers, especially Kožená and Davislim, sing beautifully. We still need a new recording of the complete opera, but until then this will do nicely. Essential for anyone who cares about 20th-century opera, or Martinů generally.

BOJ

Sir Charles Mackerras conducts Leoš Janáček

Sir Charles Mackerras (1925-2010), Australian conductor, an authority on the operas of Leoš Janáček and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1978, he was presented with the Janáček Medal and in 1996, he received the Medal of Merit of Czechia for services to Czech music. This album, recorded with Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, content symphonic poem "Taras Bulba", "Sinfonietta" and ouvertures of operas "The Cunning Little Vixen" and "Káťa Kabanová"

MPJ

Martinů - Epic of Gilgamesh

Bohuslav Martinů's oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh (1955) is unusual and, in a way, unique in all the international literature, as exciting and mysterious as the ancient tale on which it is based. The epic, one of the oldest extant examples of written culture, dates back to the beginning of Babylon, and Martinu devoted a number of years to the study of its philosophical basis before beginning to set to music Thompson's translation of its Neoassyrian version. Martinu's conception and execution are truly ingenious making use of early Baroque forms. Outstanding performances by Prague Symphony Orchestra and Choir, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek enhance the unrepeatable atmosphere of this masterful work.

MEG

Eben - Organ Work 2: Sunday Music, Small Choral Partita, Chagall Windows

Petr Eben (1929-2007) was a Czech composer of modern and contemporary classical music, organist and choirmaster. His music has been widely performed and recorded since about 1980, with his popularity still apparently on the rise. The majority of his works are compositions for organ. Stylistically, his musical language can be considered as "neoexpressionistic" in many ways, however in some works we can hear some kind of new forms of impressionistic tendencies. He is usually compared with Olivier Messiaen (what confirmed relatively frequent combination of those two composers in organists recitals and on discs, but in other than organ works remains less experimental. Since 1989, he was honorary president of the Society for spiritual music. This recording is performed by Siegelinde Ahrens.

EO2

Janáček - Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba

"Sinfonietta" and symphonic poem "Taras Bulba" by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Karel Ančerl. Excitement, accuracy, passion, color, and expressive immediacy.  What other performance propels the second-movement ostinatos so forcefully, or builds the third movement's central climax with such explosive energy? Who else observes the various tempo changes in the brief fourth movement so effectively, wringing every drop of variety from its many repetitions of its opening trumpet tune? And who else drives the finale to positively expressionistic extremes of tension, making the return of the opening fanfares a moment of apocalyptic grandeur? I love this work, and enjoy other performances (including Kubelík, Neumann, Jílek, and Mackerras), but this is one of those rare occasions where you really can point your finger to a single version and say, "This is the best."

JST

Kabeláč - E fontibus Bohemicis

E fontibus Bohemicis, op.55 of Miloslav Kabeláč from 1965-72 is the sixmovement electro-acoustic composition "E fontibus Bohemicis", with the subtitle Six tableaux from Czech annals, finished in 1972, is the processing of the sound of the biggest bell of Prague "Sigismond", in the course of the work joined in by the oldest Czech chorale, by the organ version of the Hussite song , the fragment of the oldest Czech chronicle (by Cosmas), and by John Hus's words, the apex of the whole composition.

KFB

Martinů - Symphonies Nos.1-4

Bohuslav Martinů - Symphonies Nos.1-4 by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Václav Neumann.  From the complete of all 6 symphonic works, recorded between 1976 and 1978.

M4S

Martinů - Symphonies Nos.5 & 6, Memorial to Lidice

Symphonies Nos.5 & 6 of Bohuslav Martinů by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karel Ančerl. Last two symphonic compositions of Bohuslav Martinů - incidentally, works which Ančerl recorded at a time when the exiled composer was less than acceptable to political powers of his home country. The album contains besides Symphony No.5 and Symphony No.6, which is called "Fantaisies symphoniques", also symphonic poem "Memorial to Lidice".

M56

Fišer - Extracta

The horizon of Luboš Fišer’s  (1935-1999) world, as reflected in his compositions, is extensive. It is delineated by broad borders of his cultural knowledge and interests. He understood the excursions into the past only in relation with the present. His works have often both the mood of celebration, and warning as well. Fišer’s contribution to contemporary musical culture is considerable, his compositions often grasp the dynamic lifestyle of our modern era which he managed to express in a lapidary form of almost atomic energy. This album is a selection from his works.

FLE

Janáček - Complete Operas II

The second part of the set with operas From the House of the Dead, The Makropulos Case and Káťa Kabanová as Vol.2 of Complete Operas by Leoš Janáček, completed by Sinfonietta and symphonic poem Taras Bulba. Performed by Wiener Philharmoniker with various soloists, conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.

HOD
TMC
KAT

Janáček - Complete Operas I

Operas Jenufa, Cunning Little Wixen and Excursions of Mr.Brouček as Vol.1 of the set "Complete Operas" of Leoš Janáček, performed by Wiener Philharmoniker and soloists with conductor sir Charles Mackerras.

JEN
CLV
EMB

Kaprálová - Portrait of the composer

Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940) was a Czech composer and conductor. Among her teachers were some of the best European composers and conductors of the time Bohuslav Martinů, Václav Talich and Charles Munch. Despite her untimely death from tuberculosis in 1940, Kaprálová created an impressive body of work. There is no doubt that had she lived she would have become one of the most important women composers in Europe.

KPC

Kabeláč - Symphony No.8, Metamorphoses II

The music of Miloslav Kabeláč is characterised by his own extraordinary artificial tone-creative principles. His musical expression makes use of elements of exclamation, rhythmic shouts, monotonous and exalted invocations, mysterious, magical and symbolic meanings. The basic ideas of Kabeláč’s works is namely an emphatic warning against the danger of a decline of all positive values of humanity in context of the historical situation at the time of the origin of main works (World War II, communist regime in our country and the Soviet occupation of Czechia in 1968). Typical orchestration and and favourite instrumentation: symphonic orchestra, percussion ensemble, organ, piano, mixed choir, solo vocals. Performers Václav Neumann (conductor), Prague Percussion Ensemble, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Rabas (organ), František Maxián (piano), Jana Jonášová (soprano).

K8M