Supraphon

An exclusive 8-CD box set containing albums and rare recordings made by the Czech jazzrock legend Martin Kratochvíl! The box set includes albums not previously released on CD or unavailable for many years, as well as studio recordings with a hallmark of surprise from the repertoire of Martin Kratochvíl’s Jazz Q. The compilation has been put together by the band’s front man and supplemented by an interesting memoir of his colleague Tony Ackermann.
From the introductory “Pozorovatelna” (Observatory) to the concluding bonus “Co se na desky nevešlo” (Outtakes), the listener is presented with first-class pieces performed by superlative instrumentalists and vocalists. Besides the keyboard wizard Kratochvíl, you will hear Francl, Padrůněk, Vrbovec and Dugganová, and, as time went by, other of his permanent or occasional musical partners…

The opera Libuše occupies a unique position in Czech national culture. Smetana composed it as a festive opera to be performed on occasions celebrating the Czech nation. The first such was the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881, when the work was premiered. Supraphon’s catalogue already contains CDs of Smetana’s Libuše in two live complete recordings documenting the interpretational mastery of the artists associated with the National Theatre: the legendary recording of the performance in 1983 marking the reopening of the theatre after its reconstruction and featuring Gabriela Benacková in the lead role, and the 1995 recording of the new production of Libuše at the National, when the lead role was undertaken by Eva Urbanová.

Supraphon's Bohuslav Martinu: Chamber Music with Viola is part of their undesignated, but apparently aiming to be complete, survey of Martinu's works and concentrates on viola-driven chamber music dating from the last dozen years left to the eminent Czech composer. All but seven of those years were spent in New York City, where he taught at Mannes College of Music; during his time in New York Martinu forged a great many friendships with talented American musicians, including violist Lillian Fuchs and her husband, violinist Joseph Fuchs. Along with those two, Martinu made the acquaintance of pianist and Polish émigré Artur Balsam .

Few other composers’ music enjoys such enormous popularity and is as frequently performed on stages worldwide and recorded as that of Antonín Dvořák. And it is the symphonic works that are connected with his name most often.

Historically informed performance practice is no longer just an issue for Baroque or Classical music, but now a relevant matter in twentieth century music, as well, as this 2005 release from Supraphon demonstrates. Harpsichordist Monika Knoblochová has applied her considerable scholarship and meticulous keyboard skills in rendering Bohuslav Martinu's entertaining works for harpsichord and small instrumental groups in their original state, as found in the manuscripts, without compromises or later editorial changes. Martinu's "Back to Bach" pieces, along with the quirky Concerto (1923-1926) by Manuel de Falla, seem to benefit from this exacting period treatment, and the vivacious Concerto for harpsichord and chamber orchestra (1935) may be appreciated as one of the most satisfying neo-Baroque works since Stravinsky's celebrated "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto.

The cantata Opening of the Wells, one of Martinu’s most intimate professions of love for his native land, simply cannot be absent from the Supraphon catalogue. The composition is inspired by the ancient custom of saying good-bye to the winter and welcoming the spring, when children come to “open” springlets and purify them of deposits of sludge. A “rite of spring”, yet one entirely different to that we know from Stravinsky. In the character of the wanderer, the composer himself too returns to his native land – at least in his memories, since from 1938 until the end of his life he had no chance to come back home. Martinu also completed the other two cantatas – Legend of the Smoke from Potato Fires and Mikeš of the Mountains – in the final years of his life, homesick, with the memory of his native region and folk songs in his heart.

Joseph Suk's Ripening is one of the most amazing of all post-Romantic orchestral works. It is immensely complex in its structure: a celestial introduction is followed by a cogent progress of scherzos and slow movements, of funeral marches and fugues, all concluded by a serene coda. Yet the work is immediately comprehensible as a musical drama, made clear through the coherence of the thematic and harmonic material. Pesek and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic perform like modern-day deities. They fall short of the heights of Talich and the Czech Philharmonic, but Talich gave the work its premiere. Nonetheless, Pesek gives Ripening his very considerable all: his concentration holds the gigantic structure together as a single arch. Plus, his players articulate every instrumental detail, right down to the beatific wordless women's choir at the work's close. Highly recommended.

With a little delay following the issue of a complete set of violin works, Supraphon came with the sequel to that title in the "hommage a Zdenek Fibich" series, presenting a new recording of the complete quartet output of this Czech neo- Romantic composer who has so far failed to get all the interest he would rightfully deserve. The considerable creative challenge involved in this project was taken up here by the experienced Panocha Quartet, which was once again, after its account of Dvofak's early quartets, offered a golden opportunity to place its high artistic repute in the service of asserting music which may lie on the margins of the mainstream repertoire, yet whose values are thoroughly unmistakeable.