Janacek: Sinfonietta

“The performance itself is of the highest quality. The orchestral playing is sensitive and responsive throughout with a beautifully blended and homogeneous tonal balance. The playing is cultured but Simon Rattle also brings an awareness of the pantheistic fervour that inspires Janácek’s wonderful score.’” Gramophone Magazine

“There are many attractive aspects to this performance, not least the heroic tenor of Timothy Bench and the full-throated singing of the sopranos and altos. Too often, however, the delivery of Janacek's motor rhythms seems mechanical...[In the Sinfonietta] Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic are more consistently convincing.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 ***

“Wit's Warsaw Philharmonic forces plug directly into the emotional power of Janacek's music, reacting like demons to the distinct undulations of its speech-inspired melodic lines and spanning a rich tonal spectrum all too often missing in performances of the Glagolitic Mass. The rhythmic cripsness and sheer intensity of the conductor's interpretation return massive dividends in 'Veruju' ('Credo').” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012 ****

“Both pieces receive crisp, radiant and transparent performances.” Financial Times, 12th November 2011 ****

“The polished choral singing is a joy, with excellent pitching throughout, especially in the cruelly exposed unaccompanied entries. The orchestra's contribution is equally distinguished. How refreshing it is to hear such 'unhomogenised' clarinet- and trumpet-playing. The solo quartet also acquits itself favourably, in particular Christiane Libor, who is on spectacular form.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“Overall, Wit and his Warsaw forces have the measure of this extraordinary mass...What makes this new disc indispensable is the Sinfonietta. For both performance and sound it belongs in the top echelon of recordings of this dazzling work...In my opinion, then, Wit’s is the best option now for this particular combination of works on one disc. The Sinfonietta alone makes it indispensable.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“...a splendid recording...authoritative performance - and not least for the impressive sound.” Gramophone Magazine

“Full marks for breadth in a compilation balancing the familiar (an effortful Sinfonietta and wiry Glagolitic) with chamber music and Bostridge's Diary. Like the diarist, alas, the texts have disappeared too!” BBC Music Magazine, May 2009 ****

“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

“'I am not an old man, and I am not a believer – until I see for myself.' Thus Janácek replied angrily to a critic after the premiere of his Glagolitic Mass. This is a gritty, masterful performance of a jagged, uncomfortable masterpiece.
Its unusual title stems from the script of the ancient Slavonic text (Glagol) which Janácek set to music. Rattle's is a full-blooded, urgent view of the work, with particularly fine solo contributions from Felicity Palmer and John Mitchinson. That the language is an unfamiliar one is occasionally evident in the chorus, though they, like the orchestra, give totally committed performances under Rattle's inspired leadership.
Also included on this disc is the Sinfonietta, which is as much a study in orchestration as form, with the melody of the fourth movement appearing unaltered no fewer than 14 times, changed only in orchestral colour. It's brilliantly played here, with the 12 trumpets coming up gleaming in the final climax.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010