SOLOISTS OF THE CZECH NONET

Aleš HUSTOLES, clarinet/Klarinette/clarinette, Jiří KREJČĺ, oboe/Oboe/hautbois (Op.16), Pavel LANGPAUL, bassoon/Fagott/basson, Vladimíra KLÁNSKÁ, French horn/Horn/cor, Martin KOS, violin/Violine/violon, Jan NYKRÝN, viola/Bratsche/alto, Simona HEČOVÁ, cello/Violoncello/violoncelle, Radovan HEČ, double-bass/Kontrabass/contrebasse.

PRD 250 194

‘...he could have laid claim, like Georges Enesco, to the title of “the Berlioz of chamber music” ! It should be known that the five string quartets, two quintets, two violin sonatas, the Suite for Viola and piano and the composer’s testament, the six suites for solo strings [ ] constitute a corpus whose importance, in the 20th century, is every bit the equal of Bartók or Schoenberg. But Bloch remained an independent, far from any school or system, whose sole concern will have been [ ] to be sincere and true...’ (Harry Halbreich, 1990)

PRD 250 185

Second volume devoted to the chamber music of the Hungarian pianist-composer-conductor, illustrating the late blossoming of a neo-Germanic Romanticism combined with Magyar nationalism in the style of Brahms. Concertante music in the heritage of Liszt, creating a dialogue between the keyboard compere, with strings treated like an ensemble of soloists. A new tribute paid to a master who made the Hungarian musical scene and his younger colleagues Bartók, Kodály and Weiner internationally famous between the wars.

KOCIAN QUARTET (Opp.1, 26)

Pavel HŮLA, Miloš ČERNÝ, violins/Violinen/violons, Zbyněk PAĎOUREK, viola/Bratsche/alto Václav BERNÁŠEK, cello/Violoncello/violoncelle

Jaromír KLEPÁČ, piano/Klavier

Michal KAŇKA, cello/Violoncello/violoncelle (Op.8)

PRD/DSD 250 249

PRD 250 175

PRD 250 159

PRAGUE WIND QUINTET/QUINTETTE A VENT DE PRAGUE

Jan RIEDLBAUCH, flute/Flöte/flûte, Jurij LIKIN, oboe/Oboe/hautbois, Vlastimil MAREŠ, clarinet/Klarinette /clarinette, Vladimíra KLÁNSKÁ, French horn/Horn/cor, Miloš WICHTERLE, bassoon/Fagott/basson.

PRD 250 126

PRD 250 164

Praga DaCamera

PRD 350 025

(prev. PRD 250 164)

The composer of Julietta (A Dream-Book) left an abundant harvest of chamber works, a jazzy, iconoclastic piano quintet, then two masterpieces from the American period, preliminary counterpoints to the famous Symphonies Nos. 1 (1942) and 3 (1944), still marked by the gnawing anguish of the last war. These three masterpieces have been brought together on a single disc for the first time.

PRD/DSD 250 250

This CD associates two chamber masterpieces that Mozart dedicated to Anton Stadler, his "brother" in his masonic lodge. The famous "Skittle trio" –which is said to have been written within no more than the time of a skittle game- is a divertimento, curiously starting with a sweetly soothing andante, followed by a minuetto, modulating in G minor, and ending with a rondo, tender and poetical, highlighting the similarities in tone of the clarinet and the viola. Written three years later, the Quintet, as the forthcoming concerto K 622, exploits all the resources of the clarinet, particularly its low register, and offers, in the second larghetto one of the most beautiful nocturnal songs ever written, sublime effusion of melody played by the clarinet over strings con sordino.

PRD/DSD 250 200