Novák String

The music of Jan Novák (1921–1984) is extraordinary and remarkable as such. However, this recording puts a kind of stamp of authenticity on it since the solo parts are played not only by pianist Karel Košárek but also by both of the composer’s daughters.

The music of the Moravian composer Jan Novák (1921–84) – a natural successor to Bohuslav Martinů, with whom he briefly studied – is nothing less than life-enhancing: it has Martinů’s rhythmic charge and his unflagging energy. And although Novák had such difficulties with the authorities in Communist Czechoslovakia that he chose to emigrate, there is an infectious optimism, a joie de vivre, in these three works that is instantly communicative.

Recorded live in concert with an acoustic string quartet in a colonial-era gaol during VIVID Festival in Sydney 2022.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Janáček’s birth, this Decca Collector Edition brings together most of the composer’s chamber works and solo pieces plus his most popular orchestral works and the magnificent Glagolitic Mass in a superb digital recording with Riccardo Chailly and Wiener Philharmoniker. The recordings of the solo works and chamber pieces feature one of the world’s most distinguished ensembles: the London Sinfonietta and David Atherton. Their recordings were originally released as a 5-LP set in 1981 and many of these performances have not been available for several years; many also make their first international appearance on CD. This set provides the listener with all the essential non-operatic Janáček in one convenient collection.

The Smetana Quartet are a true legend. For over four decades (1945-1989), the ensemble gained critical acclaim and enthused audiences all over world, particularly in the UK, USA and Japan. They attained perfect chime and extraordinary flexibility in voice leading, resulting in part from their playing the entire repertoire by heart. This quadrophonic recording featuring Two String Quartets of Bedřich Smetana. It have been recorded in February 1976 in Praha and originally released through local Supraphon label.

The fruitful partnership between the Alpha label, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and the Palazzetto Bru Zane continues with this set of chamber music by Anton Reicha, performed by the musicians of the Chapel, young talents of an exceptionally high standard, ready and willing to take up the challenge of this music.

As a young guitarist growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Charlie Hunter was looking for a way to stand out in the '80s. His primary influences were jazz great Joe Pass and the fluid Tuck Andress (of the guitar/vocal duo Tuck & Patti), both six-string guitarists who were adept at blending bass notes into their standard guitar melodies to make themselves sound like two musicians at once. But Hunter wanted to take it one step further and set out to find an instrument on which he could simultaneously function as both a guitarist and a bassist.

Hänssler Classic Eigenschreibweise: hänssler CLASSIC ist ein Musiklabel der Profil Medien GmbH mit Sitz in Neuhausen auf den Fildern, initial aus dem Hänssler Verlag hervorgegangen. Es gehört heute nach eigenen Angaben zu den weltweit erfolgreichsten unabhängigen Plattenlabeln für Klassische Musik.