PRAGUE WIND QUINTET

Jan RIEDLBAUCH, flute/ Flöte /flûte, Jurij LIKIN, oboe/0boe/hautbois, Vlastimil MAREŠ, clarinet/Klarinette/clarinette, Miloš WICHTERLE, bassoon/Fagott/basson, Vladimíra KLÁNSKÁ, french horn/Horn/cor.

PRD 250 134

PRD 250 111

Viktor ULLMANN : 1 January 1898 (Teschen*) – 18 October 1944 (KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau)

* Austrian Silesia (Austro-Hungarian Empire), now divided between Cieszyn in Poland and Český Těšín in the Czech Republic

PRD 250 180

Viktor Ullmann Foundation

Between April 1813 and June 1828, Schubert wrote some 32 scores requiring a partner or pupil. For him, the piano four hands was ‘always a place of exchange and dialogue, a symbol of fraternal communion within the same affective universe’, as Brigitte Massin summed it up so well. In addition to dances, marches, Ländler, divertimenti, variations and varied themes, Schubert left a modest, highly moving testament in the Fantasy in F minor, a masterpiece of the genre. Here it is coupled with a few artful examples of this new literature for an instrument that had just found its technical optimisation in the invention of the double escapement.

PRD/DSD 250 263

Beethoven left 20 notebooks of variations for keyboard two hands, composed between 1782 and 1823, with the 33 Variations on a theme by Diabelli, Op.120. His oeuvre for four hands is reduced and curiously neglected, even the final version (Op.134) of the Great Fugue. He always refused to subscribe to the common practice of the time and let his symphonies be transcribed. Liszt laid hold of them as of 1837, profiting from the possibilities of the modern piano, followed by a number of other pianist-composers. The editions due to Hugo Ulrich (1827-72), then Xaver Scharwenka (1858-1924) were considered authoritative at the time.

PRD/DSD 250 219

PRAGUE WIND QUINTET

Jan RIEDLBAUCH, flute Flöte, Jurij LIKIN, oboe/Oboe/hautbois, Vlastimil MAREŠ, clarinet in E flat/Es-Klarinette/clarinette en mi bémol, Vladimíra KLÁNSKÁ, French horn/ Horn/cor, Miloš WICHTERLE, bassoon/Fagott/basson (4-6) CZECH SOLOISTS: Petr LOUENSKÝ, piccolo, Jiirí KREJÍ, English horn/Englisch Horn/cor anglais, Karel DONHAL, clarinet in A/A-Klarinette/petite clarinette, Zbynk CÍCHA, bass-clarinet/Baß-Klarinette/clarinette-basse, Luboš FAIT, double-bassoon/Kontrafagott/contrebasson, Petr DUDA, French horn/Horn/cor, Vladislav KOZDERKA, trumpet/Trompette/trompette, Václav FEREBAUER, trombone/Posaune

PRD 250 130

Just like Dvořák, Janáček played the organ, especially from 1875 to 1905, more than the piano, even though he mainly composed at the keyboard after the death of his daughter Olga. He left only a few masterpieces, short works or cycles juxtaposing real or imaginary dialogues and marked by considerable differences in affectivity and dynamic. Their language—questioning, amorous, exalted, desperate or violent—forms a sort of dreamlike counterpoint to his fantastic operatic repertoire. Slávka Pěchočová’s playing reflects the rigour of her first teacher, Martin Hršel, and the almost-Impressionistic expressiveness of her second, the famous Professor Ivan Moravec.

PRD/DSD 250 266

Yakov Zak was one of the greatest names in Soviet piano performing and teaching but remained little known abroad, with the possible exception of the United States. From a Jewish family in Odessa like Emil Gilels, three years his junior, he achieved skills worthy of the latter with whom he frequently played in duo. A student of Heinrich Neuhaus, 1st Prize at the Chopin Competition in 1937, with special mention for his interpretation of the mazurkas, his vast repertoire concentrated on Beethoven – late Sonatas, Diabelli Variations – Schubert, Chopin, of course, Brahms with the two Concertos, Rachmaninov's 4th Concerto – preceding Michelangeli – Prokofiev and Medtner, whom he defended with Gilels. Endowed with Olympian technique and a clear, solid sense of form, he remains a model, a humanist whose current discography is amazingly meagre. He died of a heart attack on 28 June 1976, the day after a brutal police interrogation.

PRD/DSD 350 054

The fifth volume devoted to Schönberg’s chamber music. On display here is writing that, after being based on traditional models (youthful Scherzo and Presto), evolves towards a melodic density and clarity of counterpoint making the Chamber Symphony, Op.9 (1906) accomplished and radiant as much in its chamber transcriptions as in the versions for full orchestra. The Quartet No.3 (1926) achieves a masterful balance between rhythm and harmony, melody and counterpoint, horizontality and verticality. All these processes blend in an original art of the continuous variation. By blurring the formal aspect, the PRAŽÁKs make him the heir of other Viennese: Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms… and Beethoven.

PRD/DSD 250 278

The 24 Preludes and the last Sonatas of Dmitri Kabalevsky figure amongst the best piano works of the forties, ranked with those of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The first Sonata is reminiscent of the first Scriabin, whereas the second and the third are ‘war pieces’ with frankly virtuosic pages. Gilels to whom the work was dedicated was the first to play the second (1946), Yakov Zak, his senior and alter ego, newly rediscovered (PRD 350 054), the third (1947). Christoph Deluze enamid of russian music revealed by Shura Cherkassky and student of Dagobert Buchholz has become well known for his interpretation of the 24 Preludes : here he groups the 3 Sonatas and confirms their impressive stature, their intense lyricism and rythmic vigor. A demonstrative programm for those who are fond of spectaluclar and symphonic piano.

PRD/DSD 250 279