Prague Spring Festival Gold Edition Vol.5 (Dvořák A., Haydn J., Beethoven L.v.) (2CD)

Prague Spring Festival Gold Edition Vol. 5 (2CD)

CD I.

Antonín Dvořák - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Op.104/ Koncert pro violoncello a orchestr h moll, op. 104

1. I. Allegro 15:09

2. II. Adagio ma non troppo 11:05

3. III. Finale. Allegro moderato 12:28

Antonio Meneses cello

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Česká filharmonie, Zdeněk Košler conductor

Stereo live recording, Prague Spring Festival 1991

Johannes Brahms - Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra in A minor, Op.102 / Koncert a moll pro housle, violoncello a orchestr, op. 102

4. I. Allegro 17:02

5. II. Andante 7:24

6. III. Vivace non troppo 8:17

Josef Suk violin, Heinrich Schiff cello

Prague Symphony Orchestra / Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy FOK, Jiří Bělohlávek conductor

Stereo live recording, Prague Spring Festival 1979

CD II.

Joseph Haydn - Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in E flat major / Koncert pro trubku a orchestr Es dur Hob VIIe:1

1. I. Allegro 6:27

2. II. Andante cantabile 3:56

3. III. Allegro 4:25

Maurice André trumpet

Prague Symphony Orchestra / Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy FOK, Charles Mackerras conductor

Stereo live recording, Prague Spring Festival 1974

Ludwig van Beethoven - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.2 / Koncert c moll pro klavír a orchestr č. 3, op. 37

4. I. Allegro con brio 17:11

5. II. Largo 9:49

6. III. Rondo. Allegro 8:59

Radu Lupu piano

Prague Symphony Orchestra / Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy FOK, Jesús López-Cobos conductor

Stereo live recording, Prague Spring Festival 1977

This double album, already the fifth installment of a series of rare historical recordings from the Prague Spring international music festival concerts, features an array of prominent soloists whose appearances in the festival’s orchestral programmes contributed to establishing the event’s prestige. Their list is so long that the recordings from these concerts could easily make for an entire separate series on this record label. The present release is focused on three recordings dating from the 1970s, plus one from the early nineties. One of the works credited with the largest numbers of performances over the course of the festival’s history is Antonín Dvořák’s celebrated

Cello Concerto. It was played here by a plethora of soloists, including some famous names. Of these it is indeed impossible not to mention Mstislav Rostropovich, still as a young artist in the early 1950s, who played the piece on several occasions, starting in 1950 with the Prague Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Václav Smetáček (as then a winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition). Then again two years later, he performed it with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Karel Ančerl, and recorded the work the same year in a now legendary recording with the same orchestra, this time with Václav Talich at the podium.

Fast-forward to 1991 exceptional acclaim was earned by the Brazilian cellist, Antonio Meneses (1957–2024). By then, already a globally renowned artist, winner of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, he had worked with virtually all of the world’s major orchestras. He has to his credit a formidable list of recordings on a wide variety of labels with leading orchestras and conductors, including e.g. the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan for Deutsche Grammophon. He had made several previous appearances in Prague, including a Prague Spring recital in 1985 in which he performed the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor by Antonín Dvořák, naturally. The work’s recording featured on this album captures Meneses as a player endowed with brilliant technical skills, but also as a supremely sensitive artist with a sharp sense of profoundly lyrical expression, an aspect which is of course particularly important in approaching Dvořák’s music. In this Prague performance he shared the stage with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Zdeněk Košler, known for his exceptionally refined feeling for Classical Czech music. The Dvořák Concerto then took up the second part of an evening which began with Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture, followed by the Legend “De passione Sancti Adalberti martyris” by Marek Kopelent, for mixed choir, recitation and orchestra. Completed in 1895, Dvořák’s Concerto was mostly written in America, except the ending which was composed by Dvořák after his return home, following the death of his sister-in-law, Josefina. In the next track, the sound of the cello masterfully blends with that of the violin. In terms of fame and popularity, the celebrated Double Concerto of Johannes Brahms is a virtually peerless opus for solo violin and cello with orchestra accompaniment is unparalleled and a staple of the world concert repertoire. It has been performed several times at the Prague Spring Festival and has always attracted great attention, as have the soloists who have been commissioned to interpret the work. The present album pays homage to two great artists: Josef Suk, and Heinrich Schiff.

(Czech Radio 2024)