Martinu: Cantatas

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Baritone Jirí Brückler is superb here, and the top-quality professional Prague Philharmonic Choir master the most harmonically rich cantata of the four, a tale of a girl who doesn’t recognise... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2017, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 18th Nov 2016
Catalogue No: SU41982
Label: Supraphon
Length: 68 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

March 2017

Choral & Song Choice
Gramophone Magazine

March 2017

Editor's Choice
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2018

Finalist - Choral

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Martinů: The Legend of the Smoke From Potato Tops, H. 360

Work length18:09

$1.05

$1.35

Daniel Havel (soloist), Jan Pařík (soloist), Jan Vobořil (soloist), Josef Hřebík (soloist), Ivo Kahánek (soloist), Pavla Vykopalová (vocalist), Ludmila Kromková (vocalist), Petr Svoboda (vocalist)
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek

Martinů: The Opening of the Wells, H. 354

Work length19:39

$1.05

$1.35

Jaromír Meduna (soloist), Ivo Kahánek (soloist), Jakub Fišer (soloist), Štěpán Ježek (soloist), Jiri Pinkas (soloist), Pavla Vykopalová (vocalist), Ludmila Kromková (vocalist), Jiří Brückler (vocalist)
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek

Martinů: Romance of the Dandelions, H. 364

Work length11:24

$1.05

$1.35

Patrik Lavrinčík (soloist), Pavla Vykopalová (vocalist), Martin Slavík (vocalist)
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek

Martinů: Mikeš of the Mountains, H. 375

Work length18:56

$1.05

$1.35

Ivo Kahánek (soloist), Jakub Fišer (soloist), Štěpán Ježek (soloist), Jiri Pinkas (soloist), Pavla Vykopalová (vocalist), Martin Slavík (vocalist)
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek

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When Miloslav Bureš sent his first poem Song of the Ruby Spring to Bohuslav Martinů in 1955, he seemed to have touched the deepest spot of the composer’s heart. The poet set his verses into the landscape of the Czech Highlands, the region of Martinů’s childhood and a rich source of his memories. The composer must have identified strongly with the character of the pilgrim returning to his birthplace, because he wrote The Opening of the Springs within nine days. Later he set to music three more poems by Bureš, finishing the last one, Mikeš of the Mountains, half a year before his death. For Martinů, the cantatas represented an important link to his homeland at a time when the political situation and later also his poor health were diminishing his hopes of coming back home. One can only imagine what he felt when he was sitting in Schönenberg, Switzerland, listening to the vinyl record with the first recording of his Opening of the Springs published by Supraphon, or when his friends were sending him reports about the Czech premieres of his works...

Recorded in the Rudolfinum, Prague, October and December 2015

Reviews

March 2017

Baritone Jirí Brückler is superb here, and the top-quality professional Prague Philharmonic Choir master the most harmonically rich cantata of the four, a tale of a girl who doesn’t recognise her long-lost love returning from the wars…valuable messages for our or indeed any time, and superlatively performed. Unmissable

March 2017

This is a singularly exotic issue for Czechs and non-Czechs alike...I cannot imagine these cantatas being better performed or recorded than here; Lukáš Vasilek is an outstanding conductor, and the Prague Philharmonic Choir respond to his every interpretative intuition. Very highly recommended.

15th December 2016

The Prague choir gets the balance right: vivid character and resonant voices but never saccharine and rhythmically taut. This is the ensemble that premiered three of the cantatas (in a previous guise) and it’s hard to imagine singing of more authority in Martinů’s music.

Martinu: Cantatas

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