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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Vaclav Neumann conducts Smetana, Dvorak, Beethoven & Janacek
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| |  | Janacek: Glagolitic Mass & Taras Bulba
This album offers two of the best known and most loved works by Leoš Janáček. The Glagolitic Mass was thus described by a musicologist: "It has absolutely everything, it’s engrossing and enthralling and captivating and startling and soothing and primitive and pristine and incredibly spiritual". Taras Bulba is a Rhapsody for Orchestra. The work combines diffuse, almost easy-listening romanticism with enough mystery and tangy dissonance to tell you immediately who the composer is. The orchestra, choir and conductor on this album are familiar from many other PentaTone Recordings such as the Wagner Edition and the Brahms Requiem (PTC5186361). “A lean, cleanly contoured Glagolitic, lacking the elemental charge and raw abandon of some versions. Taras Bulba is generally well played, if again short on real cutting edge and excitement.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 *** |
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| |  | Mahler: Symphony No. 1
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Together with Sir Charles Mackerras, Rafael Kubelik's name is synonymous with the music of Janacek. Here, reissued at budget price, are his superb readings of a trio of Janacek masterpieces recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, recordings that have plenty of weight, get to the heart of the emotion of the music as well as giving it clarity and transparency when called for. “...a splendid recording...authoritative performance - and not least for the impressive sound.” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Janacek: Glagolitic Mass and Taras Bulba
“What is in fact performed here is the rarely heard original version… at its most striking in the Credo: its dramatic portrayal of the earthquake and storm unleashed at Jesus's death is realised not merely by the usual manic organ solo, but also by the ferocious roar of multiple timpani and howling strings. ...is the highpoint of this live 1996 performance, as it should be, though elsewhere Janáček's gloriously rich and strange choral music also tells thanks to the well-drilled Prague Philharmonic Choir. The companion items, performed in 2003, receive more polished and dramatically alive accounts, matched with more imaginative camera work.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2005 “…a splendid disc, offering outstanding performances, well filmed against the background of the Dvořák Hall, not just of the Glagolitic Mass but also of Jealousy, the original orchestral prelude for the opera Jenůfa, and the three-movement symphonic poem Taras Bulba-two works that require background information for full appreciation. Sir Charles is in energetic form and the Czech forces bring extra idiomatic authenticity, with high dramatic contrasts well caught and the important timpani part given full force.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2005 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mackerras Conducts Janacek
“Issued to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, this two-disc set of orchestral works may be the last Janácek recording from our greatest advocate of his work, Sir Charles Mackerras.
Where his pioneering Pro Arte recording of the Sinfonietta has an earthy quality and Decca's Vienna version is ripe and resonant, the new one is generally lighter and more flexible. The live performance brings dividends in its flow and the build-up of excitement, thrillingly caught when the fanfare theme returns to cap the finale.
Where most versions of the Cunning LittleVixen Suite use Václav Talich's reorchestration, Mackerras has gone back to the original. As he says, the orchestral writing may seem unusual, but it certainly isn't amateurish, where Talich's version, for all its beauty, 'rather emasculates the acid sounds produced for the insects'. but it certainly isn't amateurish, where Talich's version, for all its beauty, 'rather emasculates the acid sounds produced for the insects'.
Mackerras includes two tiny interludes for Kát'a Kabanová which he discovered in Prague, written when the German Theatre needed more time for scene changes. Rightly, he regards them as little jewels, well worth preserving.
The rarity is the incidental music for Gerhardt Hauptmann's play, Schluck und Jau, which Janácek was writing at the time of his death. The first of the two completed movements brings intriguing echoes of the fanfares in the Sinfonietta and the second in 5/8 time is equally original in its instrumentation, with deep trombones and stratospheric violins.
The helpful acoustic of the Rudolfinum gives a mellow quality to the refined playing of the Czech Philharmonic, with ample space round the sound, without underplaying the contrasts of wind and strings which are so typical of the composer.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Janacek: Sinfonietta
Janacek: | Sinfonietta Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Charles Mackerras Taras Bulba Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Charles Mackerras Lachian Dances London Philharmonic Orchestra, François Huybrechts Suite for string orchestra, JW 6/2 Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Neville Marriner Mládí (Youth), for wind sextet Bell (flute/piccolo), Craxton (oboe), Pay (clarinet), Harris (bass clarinet), Gatt (bassoon), Eastop (horn) Capriccio for piano (left hand) & chamber ensemble, JW VII/12 'Vzdor' London Sinfonietta, David Atherton Concertino, JW VII/11 Paul Crossley (piano) London Sinfonietta, David Atherton |
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| | | (also available to download from $21.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Janacek: Glagolitic Mass & Taras Bulba
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Janacek: Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba & Lachian Dances
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| | | Scheduled for release on 17 June 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
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