In the spring of 1945 the intelligentsia in Russia and the rest of the world expected Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony
to glorify Stalin’s victory with a hymn worthy of Beethoven’s. What emerged was a symphonic scherzo, more
Rossini-like than majestic, except for the solemn brass call of the largo. The symphony was preceded by a piano
trio in memory of the great polyglot and intellectual Ivan Sollertinsky, who had lost favour with the Kremlin. It
was followed by String Quartet No.3, his awesome last diatribe against vice and violence, transcending his 8th
Symphony’s unavowed strains of ukase.

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PRD 250 319

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Whether merely copying, or else adapting, transcribing (for piano), changing key, style, instrumentation or orchestration – musical arrangement is common outside the world of classical music. The last example here is a world premiere by contemporary Czech composer Kryštof Mařatka, whose string quartet arrangement of Janáček’s wind sextet has virtually become his master’s 3rd Quartet. Are these works merely ‘in the style of’ or genuine transfigurations, along the lines of Schönberg’s famous Nuit Op.4, an orchestration of a poem by Richard Dehmel? Judge for yourselves!

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PRD/DSD 350'132

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In 2015 the three founder members of the Pražák Quartet, Vlastimil Holek (2nd violin), Josef Klusoň (viola) and Michal Kaňka (cello) were joined by first violinist, Jana Vonášková, previously member of the SMETANA Trio. For their first recording in this new formation, they pay a tribute to SMETANA in a luxurious, curiously unusual, chamber music programme with the help of a young and yet glorious French pianist Natalia Milstein, in commemoration of the centenary of Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 after the First World War. A French-Czech event.

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PRD/DSD 350 151

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An exceptionnal musical encouter bethween Casals and two of the most talented chamber musicians of the time, Beethoven^s own home in Bonn, which is now a museum. You will hear the great master's very first and final trios, one a tribute to Haydn (Op.1 No. 3), the other his famous genre masterpiece Archiduke, which served as a model for Schubert, Schumann and Brahms (Op.101)

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PRD 250 412

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On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, Praga Digitals presents a box-set of 30 key discs that retrace the history of the label. These include rereleases of some of the house’s great names, such as the Pražák, the Kocian, the Zemlinsky and the Párkányí, but also the magnificent restorations of the historic recordings of Mravinsky, Furtwängler, Oistrakh and Richter.
The selection draws from the label’s preferred repertory, from Czech music to the Second Viennese School, via Brahms, Schubert, Janáček, but also Debussy, Ravel, Mahler, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, without forgetting the composer who was perhaps most championed by the catalogue, Bartók. This box-set is thus an opportunity to reinstate some of the finest discs in the catalogue, from among those that contributed to making Praga Digitals one of the greatest catalogues of chamber music and one of the references as regards aural beauty, in a limited and remastered edition

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PRD 250 421

==> CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS BOXSET ON THE PRAGA DIGITALS ONLINE STORE

Since their debut as a trio in 1986, Čeněk Pavlík, Marek Jerie and Ivan Klánský have ranked among the finest chamber musicians of their generation. Here, to mark thirty-five years of playing together, the Guarneri Trio Prague immortalise works by Haydn, while celebrating the composer’s eternal youthfulness with all the expressive intensity and spirit that we have come to expect of them.

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