Pragu Symphony Orchestra Brauner - Music for Prague - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The story of the Prague Symphony Orchestra is closely related to the history of the Czech capital, which leaves an impression on their repertoire. After their successful recording of Karel Husa's Music for Prague 1968 (Supraphon, 2021), the orchestra and it's chief conductor are coming up with another album dedicated to Prague. This time, the program is focused on the late 19th century, i.e. The period when the Czech nation fought for it's language, culture, and identity within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The backbone of the record is Suk's monumental symphonic poem Praga, based on the Hussite chorale, InchKtož jsú Boží bojovníciInch (Ye Who Are Warriors of God); Vyšehrad from Smetana's famous cycle Má vlast (My Country); and a rarity Pohádka o Šemíku (A Tale of Šemík), which is a largely unknown symphonic poem based on an ancient Czech legend connected with Vyšehrad, by Otakar Ostrcil, composed when he was nineteen. And of course, there is Antonín Dvorák. In hardly any work of his is Dvorák as explicitly patriotic as in his overture My Home (which is not very well known either). It is based on the theme of the popular song InchKde domov muj,Inch which later became the Czech national anthem. Another rarity of this album is Dvorák's fanfare for the opening of the National Jubilee Exhibition in Prague. After their acclaimed recording of the composer's Slavonic Dances, the Prague Symphony Orchestra confirm that the Czech repertoire of late Romanticism is their native and most natural language. The romantic and legendary city of Prague on a record of the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

The viola's dark, velvety sound and it's depth of expression enchanted many composers of the twentieth century (Bartók, Martinu, Hindemith, Clarke etc.) who made major contributions to the instrument's repertoire. Jitka Hosprova, however, likes to stay off the beaten path. For her recording with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, she has chosen three modern works composed in her homeland over a span of 30 years at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Oldrich Flosman completed Visions of Michelangelo, a work that is now nearly forgotten, in 1975 on commission for celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo's birth. Jindrich Feld's Viola Concerto, one of his last works, bears comparison with Bartók's and even exceeds it in terms of technical difficulty; the demands made on the soloist are quite extreme. Sylvie Bodorova's Planctus (the title refers to a Medieval form, the Inchlaments of the Virgin MaryInch) reflects the gloom, stress, and hopelessness of life in communist Czechoslovakia of the 1980s. In all three movements, the deep intimacy of the viola stands in contrast to the massive symphonic sound of the orchestra. More than any other instrument, the viola has a tone that reaches the innermost world of the composer and of the subject matter. On this revelatory, technically virtuosic recording of rarely played works, Jitka Hosprova brings back to life three works that definitely deserve the attention of performers and listeners. Modernity and traditional form, totality and freedom - three Czech viola concertos from the turn of the millennium

Highly impressed by the Moravian Duets, even though the set had yet to be issued, the Berlin-based Fritz Simrock wrote to the young Antonín Dvorák, commissioning from him another work and outlining his idea of it's being in the fashion of Brahms's Hungarian Dances. The composer duly sketched the first series of Slavonic Dances within a few hours, and completed the version for piano four hands in three weeks. At the same time, he worked on the orchestration. In an extensive essay in the National- Zeitung in Berlin, the influential critic Louis Ehlert lauded Dvorák so keenly that he brought the then unknown Czech artist overnight fame InchI consider the Slavonic Dances a piece that will circle the world just as Brahms's Hungarian Dances have... Divine naturalness circulates in this music... Dvorák writes such cheerful and singular basslines that the heart of a true musician jumps for joy... I think how wonderful it would be to see once again emerging a musician about whom we would need to argue as little as about spring.Inch During the first year after it's publication, selected Slavonic Dances were performed in Prague, New York, Boston, London, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn, Nice, Graz, Lucerne, and other cities... Dvorák's music is deeply engraved in the DNA of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, who have performed it under conductors of such renown as Jirí Belohlávek, Charles Mackerras, Václav Neumann, Tomáš Netopil, etc. The new recording, made with Tomáš Brauner, the orchestra's current music director, draws upon an illustrious interpretation tradition, with it's rounded and transparent sound capturing the best qualities of the exquisite Art Nouveau Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague. / Slavonic Dances with the Prague Symphony Orchestra - Dvorák in good hands