jb 24

With Paranormal Musicality, JB Dunckel embraces free, delicate, and ambitious forms of piano improvisation. Filled with images of a world where nature pulses and breathes, these 18 instrumental pieces draw from everything the musician – a key figure in electronic music both in his solo career and as part of the French musical duo Air – has ever written and loved. The project is a celebration of the instrument that has accompanied him every day since childhood and a departure into unexplored realms.

JB Dunkel is one half of the pioneering French band Air, who are currently on a world tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their seminal album Moon Safari. Blending powerful electronics, percussion, and mixed choir, the album mimics the power of dance, movement, and acrobatics - as the score to the ballet Möbius Morphosis, commissioned for this years’ Cultural Olympiad.

Bedrich Smetana's cycle Má vlast is not only the culmination of his symphonic output, it also occupies a unique position in Czech music and conveys a very special message of national character for Czech society. "Sublime", one reviewer called the remarkable live performance of Smetana's Ma vlast by an extended Collegium 1704 during the Prague Spring Festival of 2021. The Czech ensemble played on period instruments and thanks to the Czech conductor Václav Luks, Smetana's masterpiece is a "source of innovation, a living history that took listeners on a journey of pride and inspiration".

JB Dunkel is one half of the pioneering French band Air, who are currently on a world tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of their seminal album Moon Safari. Blending powerful electronics, percussion, and mixed choir, the album mimics the power of dance, movement, and acrobatics - as the score to the ballet Möbius Morphosis, commissioned for this years’ Cultural Olympiad.

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is one of the most popular suites in the entire orchestral canon. The work’s imperishable melodies and sonorities were an influence on Stravinsky and have been referred to by innumerable cinema composers ever since. The musical narrative draws on The Arabian Nights, appealing to the imagination with its haunting beauty and enchantingly exotic atmosphere. The entire world of Bedrich Smetana’s beloved opera The Bartered Bride is captured in the Overture, the rousing nature of its dances a further celebration of Czech national resurgence in the 19th century. The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.

Amongst a pantheon of great Czech composers it is Bedrich Smetana who is revered as the musical personification of his country’s national spirit and the founder of its modern musical character. Composed after the onset of Smetana’s incurable deafness, Má vlast (My Fatherland) is an unprecedented cycle of six related symphonic poems that evoke ancient Czech legends and celebrate the majestic beauty of the country’s landscapes. Acclaimed with ‘unending storms of applause’ at its 1882 premiere, Má vlast reflects the unique characteristics that form the living heart and soul of the Czech nation.

The focus of this year's program was on popular works from the 19th and 20th centuries from Europe's rich musical heritage. Bedrich Smetana, one of the most important Czech composers, was honoured with three works to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. Andris Nelsons conducted the concert for the second time, while Norwegian opera and lieder singer Lise Davidsen made her début with the orchestra. She sang two arias - from Richard Wagner's 'Tannhäuser' and Giuseppe Verdi's 'La forza del destino'.

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is one of the most popular suites in the entire orchestral canon. The work’s imperishable melodies and sonorities were an influence on Stravinsky and have been referred to by innumerable cinema composers ever since. The musical narrative draws on The Arabian Nights, appealing to the imagination with its haunting beauty and enchantingly exotic atmosphere. The entire world of Bedrich Smetana’s beloved opera The Bartered Bride is captured in the Overture, the rousing nature of its dances a further celebration of Czech national resurgence in the 19th century. The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.

The cycle of symphonic poems known as Má vlast by Smetana is well known to most music lovers, but how many people know any of his other orchestral music? Well, this disc provides the opportunity to explore the symphonic poems which preceded Má vlast. There are three from his 'Swedish' period: Richard III, Wallenstein's Camp and Hakon Jarl. Written in his native Prague, Prague Carnival and the remaining works on this disc demonstrate a more nationalistic style. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the BBC Philharmonic in an important introduction to Smetana's orchestral output which confirms the composer's status as one of the greatest Czech composers of the nineteenth century.

Through masterpieces the soul breaks barriers, through which the creator’s most intimate secrets become known. For us, the music of Smetana and Dvořák is a direct revelation of the composers’ feelings, which cannot be expressed in words, but can be shared in sound.