Label: SUPRAPHON FL 3814
Our Price: $15.75
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Sinfonia concertante in D major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
Sinfonia concertante in C major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
Concerto in A major for Viola and Orchestra
Concerto in D major for Viola and Orchestra

Gabriela Demeterova, violin, viola
Czech Philharmonic Collegium/Ondrej Vrabec
The music of the second half of the 18th century has gained a lasting popularity with audiences. It is transparent, symmetrical, and does not annoy the listener with incomprehensible depth of thought or overly exalted expression. Carl Stamitz (1745 – 1801), the son of the famous Jan Vaclav Stamic, pleasantly surprises both with his imagination and with his refined instrumental textures. Gabriela Demeterova, one of the best string players of her era makes the most of her instrumental skills in this recording of four of the composer’s violin and viola concertos. Gabriela Demeterova, also a brilliant violist, takes advantage of multitrack recording techniques in the sinfonia concertante. This lends a unity of interpretation and style to the recording.

Label: SUPRAPHON FL 3898
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CAESAR VIVE! PRAGUE 1609 – MUSIC FOR THE EMPEROR RUDOLF II - A CELEBRATION MASS IN HONOR OF HIS IMPERIAL GRACE
PHILIPPE DE MONTE (1521 – 1603): Incipite Domino; Peccantem me quotidie; O quam suavis est; CARL LUYTHON (1557/8 – 1620): Missa basim: Caesar vive!
ROSETUM MARIANUM
TOMAS DE SANTA MARIA (? – 1570): Tiento; Maria zart von edler Art; CARL LUYTON: Maria ein Reis
KRYSTOF HARANT Z POLZIC A BEZDRUZIC (1564 – 1621): Maria Kron
FRANZ SALES (ca. 1540 – 1599): Maria klar; LUZZASCO LUZZASCHI (1545? – 1607): Toccata
THE ALCHEMICAL CABINET
MICHAEL MAIER (1568/9 – 1622): Romulus hirta lupae; Sol, fax clara poli; Ex patre Myrrha
GIROLAMO CAVAZZONI (ca. 1525 – after 1577): Christe eleison
THE EMPEROR’S CHAMBERS AND GARDEN
CIPRIANO DE RORE (1515/16 – 1565)/RICHARDO ROGNIONO (ca. 1550 – 1620): Ancor che co’l partire
ALESSANDRO OROLOGIO (ca. 1550 – ca. 1633): Cor mio non mi lasciar
GABRIELE FATORINI (1598 – 1609): Ricercar
JACOB REGNART (1540/45 – 1599): Wiewol sich vil; Nun sih ich mich

Fraternitas Litteratorum/Martin Horyna
One of the most significant eras of Czech musical history took place during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612) at Prague Castle. Rudolf inherited an outstanding court ensemble for which the most celebrated European composers of the day wrote music. This new recording features two personalities in particular: Philippe de Monte, the emperor’s longtime musical director, and Carl Luython, an organist one generation younger and composer of the seven-voice mass Caesar vive! The Fraternitas Litteratorum ensemble, which specializes in performing the vocal polyphony of the 15th and 16th centuries, has here created a picture of the musical life of Rudolf’s chambers and gardens, including the liturgical and sacred works of his time.

Label: SUPRAPHON FL 4030
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FRYDERYK CHOPIN(1810-1849): Sonata in B minor, Op. 58 (1844); Scherzi in B minor, Op. 20 (1831-32), in B-flat minor, Op. 31 (1837), in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 (1839), in E major, Op. 54 (1842).

ARTIST: Ivo Kahánek, piano.

His previous solo album (Janácek, Martinu, Kabelác; Supraphon SU 3945-2) earned the young pianist Ivo Kahánek, one of the most remarkable talents of this generation, numerous enthusiastic responses on the part of the critics (“A great recital! 10/10 [Classics Today]; “He is a very special talent” [Fanfare]). With this new album, he has embraced the very core of the Romantic piano repertoire and in so doing pays tribute to Fryderyk Chopin. In addition to the paramount Sonata in B minor, Chopin’s most extensive work for solo piano, Kahánek performs four Scherzi, composed throughout Chopin’s creative life. Kahánek’s infectious musicality brings out the compositions’ poeticism, romatic upswing and virtuosity to the full—one often has the feeling that this is “merely” improvisation, a music originating from the sheer magic of the moment. The pianst’s credo is seeking his own path, yet consistently within the intentions of the composer’s score (according to Jan Ekier’s new edition). Recorded at the Martinu Hall, Academy of Music, Prague, May and June 2010.

Label: SUPRAPHON FL 4040
Our Price: $15.75
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Albinoni: Adagio; Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 5 and 12
Dvorák: Slavonic Dance No. 8; Haydn: Rondo a l’Ongarese
Paganini: Capriccio No. 24; Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, etc

ARTISTS: Cigánski diabli (Gypsy Devils) – A Slovak cimbalom band, Ernest Šarközi, director

In Roma fairy tales, it is usually the devil who imbues Gypsy music with its inimitable vivacity. And when listening to Cigánski diabli, you cannot help but believe it. The popularity of this Gypsy orchestra has crossed the borders of their native Slovakia into Moravia, Bohemia and much further afield. Of late, they have been giving concerts abroad with increasing frequency – Germany (including at the Berliner Philharmoniker Hall), England, France, Canada, etc. The ensemble, made up of eight professional, classically trained musicians, has already received three platinum discs. A traditional cimbalom band? Well, yes and no. They have, so to speak, many more strings to their bow: folk music (ranging from Slovak to Jewish), on occasions walking a tightrope between pop and jazz, at other times performing Haydn together with a "classical" pianist or a symphony orchestra. And since Brahms, Liszt and Dvorák were inspired by the "Gypsy style", why not turn things on their head and play their music the Gypsy way? With theircharacteristic virtuosity and vivacity, Cigánski diabli have entered the rarefied domain of classical music - yet in a manner entirely of their own and with arrangements not respecting the borders of genres. But what’s the use of borders when the music is of such splendour?