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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Josef Suk: Orchestral Works
Two symphonic poems by Suk are performed here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek, who also brought us the highly acclaimed recording of the composer’s First Symphony and Ripening, which was Disc of the Month in the magazine BBC Music. A Summer’s Tale is a highly personal work, rich and imaginative, not to mention brilliantly orchestrated in late romantic style. The work followed the heartfelt and sorrowful outpouring of the Asrael Symphony of 1905 – 06, composed in memory of his father-in-law, Antonín Dvořák, and wife, Otilka. In the words of the composer: ‘After wild fleeing I find consolation in nature’. The jubilation of the opening ‘Voices of Life and Consolation’ is thought to emphasise nature’s healing powers and the composer’s putting a positive face to the world after the bleakness of Asrael. ‘Midday’ depicts the all-embracing heat of noon, while the Intermezzo, ‘Blind Musicians’, expresses compassion for those who can never appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. The storm and wild longing of ‘In the Power of Phantoms’ give way finally to the mystical calm of ‘Night’. The Symphonic Poem Prague is likewise strongly personal and atmospheric, speaking of the history and mystery of Suk’s home city, its troubles and its triumphs. The opening section conjures up a picture of the early morning mists rising from the Vltava, the river flowing through the city. The mists begin to lift and the ancient fortress of Vyšehrad emerges high above on its rock. Gradually the mists disperse and Prague appears in all its glory in the sunlight. The mood then darkens, now speaking of past troubled times; but the work ends on a jubilant note, in a triumphant blaze of glory. “Belohlavek's pacing enhances Suk's abundant inspiration, often with intoxicating results. Throughout, the BBC Symphony Orchestra responds magnificently as an ensemble, bringing an almost operatic excitement to Prague...Both performances stand very high measured against the exacting tradition of some great Czech performances and are well served by this excellent recording.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ***** “The orchestral sound may not be distinctively Czech, but the vibrant playing is full of character and brings the work ['Prague'] alive brilliantly...They bring the same dedication to A Summer's Tale...Bělohlávek and the BBC SO make a powerful and impassioned case for this intense work, one that deserves to be much wider known.” bbc.co.uk, 11th September 2012 “Excellent performances: Belohlávek has done wonders to acquaint us with the lesser-known Czech repertoire.” Financial Times, 15th September 2012 **** “the Czech woodwinds are inimitably individual...Belohlavek holds the tension in both pieces from the first bar to the last. Wonderful.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012 “in this superb performance, it is the introspective passages [of 'Prague'] that impress and move.” Sunday Times, 14th October 2012 “The language is highly wrought – late-romantic, with just occasional hints that Suk may have been aware of the musical world that Debussy had revealed – and Suk's models were presumably were Dvor˘ák's late symphonic poems. But Suk's efforts lack the conciseness and the dramatic instincts of his mentor's.” The Guardian, 29th August 2012 ***  BBC Music Magazine
Disc of the month - October 2012 |
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| |  | sung in Czech
Tomás Juhás (Jeník), Dana Buresová (Marenka), Jozsef Benci (Kecal), Svotapluk Sem (Krusina), Stanislava Jirku (Ludmilla), Ales Vorácek (Vasek), Jaroslav Brezina (Ringmaster), Katerina Knezíková (Esmeralda), Ondrej Mráz (Indian), Lucie Hilscherová (Háta), Gustáv Belácek (Micha), Maxim Dusek (First Child) & Babette Rust (Second Child) BBC Singers & BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jirí Belohlávek “It's a thoughtful, searching interpretation that emphasises Smetana's bittersweet sense of comedy and is, at times, extraordinarily moving; it might not be quite to your taste if you view the piece primarily as bucolic farce. Bělohlávek occasionally deploys bigger, more dramatic voices than we would usually find in western European performances...Voráček [is] the best ever Vašek” The Guardian, 13th September 2012 **** “The slimlined BBC Symphony Orchestra adapts admirably to Jiri Belohlavek's blend of rustic cheerfulness and Wagnerian hues; they are absolutely irresistable in the Dance of the Comedians...Dana Buresová and Tomás Juhás are not, perhaps, the most warm-hearted of lovers, but both negotiate Smetana's technical challenges with aplomb.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 **** “Deep joy…One of those opera recordings that you’re reluctant to switch off” The Arts Desk, 10th November 2012 “[Belohlavek] has something of Wolfgang Sawallisch's temperament: intelligent, alert but observing the music from an objective mid-distance...But even chestnuts such as the famous Overture lack that extra edge of vitality often heard elsewhere...[Buresova] comes to the role of Marenka as a Smetana specialist whose every phrase has a ring of truth.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012 “an irresistible performance...Effervescent from overture to the finale, the BBC Symphony Orchestra plays with sheeny strings, while the BBC Singers deliver crisp and clear ensemble...although Dana Buresova and Tomas Juhas enjoy the sweetest melodies as the frustrated lovers, tenor Ales Voracek steals the show as the stuttering Vasek.” The Independent, 2nd December 2012 ***** “If none of the names in Belohlavek’s all-Czech cast is of the household variety, they have this “nationalist” tragicomedy in their blood.” Sunday Times, 9th December 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Jiří Bělohlávek conducts Josef Suk & Britten
Recorded live for the Czech Radio at the concert of the 63rd Prague Spring International Music Festival in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House, Prague, on June 1st, 2008 A unique and symbolic encounter: the most distinguished Czech conductor of the present time and a fabulous British orchestra communicate the profound messages in the works of great national composers. Jiří Bělohlávek has mediated Czech music to orchestras and audiences worldwide, yet in 2006 – as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – he became above all a Londoner. The recording at the 2008 Prague Spring festival of Suk’s Asrael and Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem will for ever serve as evidence of the extraordinary understanding between Bělohlávek and the orchestra. The common denominator of the two works is the figure of the Angel of Death. A sad and immensely powerful inspiration for Suk was the passing away of his beloved wife Otilie and his dear teacher Antonín Dvořák. Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, dedicated to the memory of his parents, is one of the composer’s early masterpieces. The recording marks a symbolic leave-taking on the part of Bělohlávek, who after six intense years as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra is returning “home” to the Czech Philharmonic. Suk and Britten, Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – a meeting of the powerful traditions of English and Czech classical music. “There's a real lowering intensity to the first movement [of the Sinfonia da Requiem], and a manic desperation to the second, so that the consolation offered by the finale really seems to have been earned.” The Guardian, 2nd August 2012 *** “Here are two fine memories of a fruitful tenure...The BBC players respond to fevered yet cogent direction with a rare but palpable intensity.” Sunday Times, 5th August 2012 “there's absolutely no denying the impressive rigour and shrewdly calibrated dynamic control of Belohlavek's meticulously prepared conception...All told, a memorably nourishing and, by the close, profoundly moving display, which is rightly afforded an enthusiastic reception...No doubt about it, this is a release that reflects enormous credit on all concerned.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 “here's a timely reminder of the profundity Jiri Bělohlávek could achieve during his impressive years as the BBC Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor...Bělohlávek caps Vaclav Neumann's earlier recording on Supraphon and matches the luminosity of Rafael Kubelik's interpretation on Panton” BBC Music Magazine ***** “The Britten receives a fine performance. The doom-laden opening, with its pounding drums, augurs well and you can tell that Bělohlávek has established a firm grip on the music from the outset...Though the performance of Sinfonia da Requiem is a fine one, Bělohlávek’s account of Asrael is finer still...From the outset the BBCSO projects the music strongly and eloquently.” MusicWeb International, August 2012 BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Choice - November 2012 |
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| |  | Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 35 'Haffner' & 36 'Linz'
In 1782 and 1783, Mozart's life was an absolute whirlwind of activity. The two symphonies he composed then bear witness to creative powers more astonishing than ever, and initiate with brio his series of mature symphonic masterpieces. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Isabelle Faust: Violin Sonatas & Concertos
“A splendid calling card from one of today's most outstanding and versatile violinists, who plays it all with equal ease.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Martinu - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Jirí Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic follow up their critically acclaimed 2005 album of Martinu’s Symphonies Nos 3 and 4 (SU36312), which was nominated for a Grammy award and hailed by critics as a recording par excellence of these works. This eagerly awaited CD, the second in a planned complete set, presents the composer’s last two symphonies, both written during his post-war sojourn in America. Symphony No. 5 was finished in 1946 and reflects Martinu’s doubt and disenchantment over developments in Czechoslovakia, the homeland to which he would never return. His last symphony, dedicated to his friend Charles Munch, then conductor of the Boston Symphony, was written during the years 1951–53. The wide-ranging and colourful orchestration of the “Symphonic Fantasies,”as Martinu himself titled it, marked a return to the symphonism and traditions of the late-Romantic music of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. On this album, Jirí Belohlávek leads the Czech Philharmonic in a tribute to a composer on whose works he has been focusing for decades. “The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is brilliantly precise yet thoughtful.” Sunday Times, 10th January 2010 **** “the complex textures of the first movement [of the Fifth] are superbly delineated and the finale has thrilling immediacy... Belohlávek responds to [the Sixth's] disparate moods magnificently in a performance of, at times, breathtaking intensity.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 **** “Both works are splendidly rendered with No. 5 best of all, a vivid interpretation benefiting from the buzz of a live performance. Belohlávek gets the balace in the tricky finale just right, letting the mood-progression of sadness-joy-determination flow organically and logically...A richly rewarding disc.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2010 “There's an easy mastery about his approach, which belies the difficulty of making this deceptively straightforward music appear as naturally expressive as it does here, and which he was clearly able to transmit to the BBCSO players as well. The busiest textures are beautifully transparent, ensuring the piquancy of the harmonies is never blunted, and no details are overlooked” The Guardian, 21st July 2011 **** “The Czech Philharmonic cycle under Belohlavek on Chandos has real authenticity of feeling and very good recording quality to commend it.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Martinu - Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Cello Concertos Nos 1 and 2 are fully characteristic of Martinu and exemplary of the influence that France, in particular, had on his composition. They contain some of his best music and are here complemented by an early Cello Concertino. This popular recording by Raphael Wallfisch and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Jirí Belohlávek is now available on the Chandos Classics label. The repertoire is rarely recorded and the disc will prove attractive on the market, at a highly competitive price. ‘All in all, a most attractive recording, which can easily serve as the sole representative of this music in anyone’s collection.’ Fanfare ‘Whatever else may be on your “must” list of classical CDs to buy, move it all down a notch and put this one on top. The two full-scale Martinu concertos on this disc can stand honourably with the few cello concertos ever programmed. Wallfisch brings a compelling mix of technical first and expressive insight… Not enough can be said for Chandos’ vibrant recording which puts real life-blood in the cello sound.’ ‘Disc of the Month’, CD Review “Recorded in 1991, Wallfisch's consummate virtuosity and considerable lyrical gifts illuminate Martinu's solo writing like no other.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Joseph Marx - Orchestral Songs and Choral Works
The Austrian composer Joseph Marx was for much of his long career a musical authority of world renown. Within his large output, his songs were amongst his greatest musical achievements, unifying romanticism, impressionism and expressionism with revolutionary results. Many thought him the rightful successor to Hugo Wolf and yet today the name and music of Joseph Marx have fallen into obscurity. The ‘Marx style’ is unmistakable. It is characterised by a highly personal compositional technique displaying a polyphonic harmony of full sonority, allied to masterly contrapuntal skills, and frequent key changes which occur apparently at random but are in fact distributed with utter logic. The music strikes the listener as timeless, refreshingly modern and, above all, surprising, able to exploit tonal means of expression to the full and raise the spirits of every true lover of melody. Chandos’ Record of the Month sees Jirí Belohlávek conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the long overdue premiere of four choral works, along with the first complete recording of Marx’s orchestral songs for soprano, performed by Christine Brewer. Three works are of particular note. Herbstchor an Pan, a single-movement cantata written in 1911, lasts very nearly twenty minutes and was Marx’s first, and for many years only, orchestral composition. It has inexplicably fallen into oblivion in the past five decades. However, it has turned out to be one of the masterpieces of its entire era. Ein Neujahrshymnus (A Hymn for the New Year) is richly orchestrated and demonstrates the profound romantic vein of Joseph Marx; it is here performed for the first time in its orchestral version. This disc represents not only the first recording of Berghymne but also its world premiere performance. We are indebted to the Marx Society for their efforts to promote this composer, and allowing the wider public to hear the outstanding quality of his works. The greatness of the music is indisputable and this recording will make for an important addition to the classical music catalogue. “The luxuriantly recorded Chandos disc is particularly welcome for featuring premiere recordings of four relatively early choral pieces including the lavishly scored Herbstchor an Pan… Performed here with considerable emotional conviction by Jirí Belohlávek and the massed forces of the Trinity Boys Choir and the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, it is by far the most striking of these works... Those drawn to the creamy sonorities of a soprano voice soaring above a lush orchestral fabric will find much to savour in Christine Brewer's warm and ecstatic renditions of 'Barkarole', 'Selige Nacht' and 'Sommerlied'...” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 **** “The most substantial work in this selection of Joseph Marx's orchestral songs and choral pieces is the Herbstchor an Pan ('Autumn Hymn to Pan'), his first orchestral work (1911) but one in which his easy mastery of a rich instrumental palette is already evident. His idiom was formed early and changed little: indeed, he had little sympathy with change, and notoriously failed to mention Schoenberg, Berg or even Hindemith when he brought out Weltsprache Musik, a book of aesthetics and philosophy, in the last year of his life, 1964.
It should be no surprise, then, to find that here is a rich, post-Wagnerian manner, luscious in harmony and sensuous in orchestration. Christine Brewer has the floating purity of voice to soar easily over Marx's beautifully judged textures in, for instance Selige Nacht and Maienblüten, both rapt in manner and unashamedly reflective, the latter suggesting the atmosphere of Strauss's Four Last Songs. Some similarity betwen Marx and Delius suggests that they had both moved away from Wagnerian harmony in comparable directions, influenced by a pantheistic response to nature: lovers of Delius's SeaDrift may appreciate the harmonic flavour and modulatory side-slips of the Herbstchor an Pan. It is in this vein that Marx seems at his most effective; the more exuberant songs sound rather laboured and their jollity contrived. Belohlávek draws a suitably rich manner from the orchestra and gives Brewer loyal support with textures that are full but always lucid, and served well by the recording.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Post-Wagnerian richness and lush harmony marks Marx's orchestral songs. Christine Brewer has the floating purity of voice to soar easily over Marx's beautifully judged textures in for instance "Selige Nacht" and "Maienblüten", both rapt in manner and unashamedly reflective, the latter suggesting the atmosphere of Strauss's Four Last Songs.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2009 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Foerster - Violin Concertos
The Times called it a “superbly played concert:” Ivan Ženatý and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlavek performed Foerster’s first violin concerto at London’s Barbican Hall in December, 2007. The concerto was written at the urging of Czech violin virtuoso Jan Kubelík, the dedicatee of the work, and the soloist who premiered it in Chicago in 1910. The second concerto, recorded in the studio, is a somewhat neglected part of the solo repertoire, not being a work for the presentation of superficial violin virtuosity. Ženatý, however, succeeds in delving beneath the piece’s surface and uncovering its introverted beauty for the audience. Thus these pieces appear together for the first time ever on this album, produced in cooperation with BBC Radio 3. The combination of Foerster’s music with a soloist and conductor of this calibre could be called a truly fortunate constellation. Belohlávek is a conductor of worldwide reknown whose years of musical activity have earned him the position of a specialist in the Czech symphonic and operatic repertoire. Under his guidance, the London orchestra rings with the tones, colors and ardor traditionally associated with Czech ensembles, while Ženatý’s playing is characterized as always by passion and virtuosity in the service of the composition. The unique first recording of Foerster’s complete violin concertos in a spectacular performance by Ivan Ženatý and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlávek. “Full marks to Ivan Ženatý and Jirí Belohlávek for bringing these fascinating works to public attention.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 **** “If [Foerster's] melodies are not intrinsically memorable, these finely wrought concertos get ideally idiomatic, rhapsodic performances from Zenaty and the BBCSO under Belohlavek.” Sunday Times, 17th August 2008 *** “[The Violin Concertos] are intensely lyrical works, mostly conventional in form but gorgeously expansive in the best of their melodic writing. The performances seem beautifully judged, and the soloist Ivan Zenaty has the perfect pure-toned expressiveness the music needs.” Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 5th September 2008 *** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“This notoriously difficult yet majestic concerto is the perfect vehicle to show off the considerable talents of dazzling French pianist Cedric Tiberghien, who tackles it with a combination of effortless virtuosity and maturity beyond his years.
Partnered with the BBC Symphony and new chief conductor Jiri Belohlavek, Tiberghien is equally at home in the light, contemplative passages, the stormy superstructure and the joyous final movement. The orchestra completes its
programme with a spirited rendering of Brahms's Haydn Variations.” The Observer “few recordings in recent years have matched the emotional intensity and drama that Tiberghien and Belohlavek bring to this masterpiece.” Classic FM Magazine “The French pianist Cédric Tiberghien, now 32, has climbed to prominence slowly, gathering competition prizes, a Harmonia Mundi recording contract and four CD recital discs of core repertoire from Bach to Debussy. He's no flashy virtuoso: one Lang Lang is enough. But he's refreshingly individual, sensitive, strong-minded, intelligent; more than a name to watch.” The Times “The recording spotlights the piano so that Tiberghien's every note can be heard and pondered, and he never gives the impression of irresponsibility or excessive calculation. But everything is so shaped and rationally conceived that this powerful work never quite achieves its usual impact...” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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BBC Music Magazine Awards 2013
Gramophone Awards 2010