Various Artists - Appear & Inspire - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Various Artists - Music / Various [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/23/2002

Classics and discoveries. The present album, released on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Cracow Duo Kalinowski & Szlezer, is composed of the most famous pieces for cello and piano. This unique album includes, among others, Swan from InchCarnival of AnimalsInch by Camille Saint-Saëns and Le Grand Tango by Astor Piazzolla, as well as romantic and melodic compositions less known to listeners, including Romance sans paroles by Zygmunt Stojowski and Milontan by José Bragato. Jan Kalinowski and Marek Szlezer have been friends since childhood, they studied in Krakow and Paris. The musicians featured here have performed on the most prestigious stages in the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Salle Cortot in Paris, Seoul Arts Center in Seoul, Alfred Newman Hall in Los Angeles, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. The album that Jan Kalinowski and Marek Szlezer are handing over to you is a story of twenty years of working and traveling together told with music.

For four decades, Marie Podvalová (1909-1992) was one of the most popular and sought-after opera singers of the National Theatre in Prague, where she was engaged from 1937 to 1978. She dazzled in the part of Bedrich Smetana's Libuše, which she created in 1938 under the guidance of the conductor Václav Talich, as well as in the roles of Milada in Dalibor and Anežka in Two Widows. She also appeared in Dvorák operas, performing to acclaim Armida, the Foreign Princess in Rusalka and Julie in The Jacobin, and in Janácek works, primarily excelling as Kostelnicka in Jenufa. Supraphon is for the first time releasing the complete studio recordings Marie Podvalová made between 1939 and 1950. The set encompasses three songs from the collection Venec ze zpevu vlasteneckých (A Garland of Patriotic Songs, 1835-1844), which she performs accompanied on the piano by J. B. Foerster. It contains Marie Podvalová's final, previously unreleased, studio recording, with the soprano singing Beatrice in a scene from Zdenek Fibich's opera The Bride of Messina. The album also captures the voices of Jan Konstantin, Jindrich Blažícek, Marta Krásová, Ivo Žídek, Jaroslav Gleich, Zdenek Otava, Štepánka Jelínková, Jaroslav Jaroš, Josef Otakar Masák, Maria Tauberová, Ludek Mandaus, Stanislav Muž, and other singers. The Prague Symphony Orchestra and the National Theatre Orchestra are conducted by Rudolf Vašata, Zdenek Chalabala, Jaroslav Krombholc, František Škvor, Zdenek Folprecht, Otakar Jeremiáš and Karel Nedbal. The marks the 30th anniversary of the legendary artist's death.