2023

The year 2023 saw a record number of new releases of Kapralova’s music - nine in all - including two world premieres: Tales of a Small Flute and Trio for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Kapralova’s music was performed widely and in as many as twelve countries, with the UK and the USA leading the way in the number and frequency of performances and broadcasts throughout the year. Another highlight of 2023 was the publication of the orchestral version of the composer’s magnificent song Sbohem a satecek by the Czech Radio Publishing House, rounding off their important collection of Kapralova’s scores published over the years in collaboration with the Kapralova Society.

April Preludes, Suita Rustica, Military Sinfonietta, Ritournelle for cello and piano, Elegy for violin and piano, and the composer’s songs were the most frequently performed compositions in 2023. Antonio Oyarzabal continued to be the most vigorous champion of Kapralova’s music, giving it a number of performances in several countries over the course of the year. Three country premieres of Kapralova’s music took place in 2023: the Cuban premiere of April Preludes, performed by Lisa Maria Blanco at the Museum of Fine Arts in Havana; the Canadian premiere of Suita Rustica, given by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Raiskin at Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall; and the French premiere of Kapralova’s Piano Concerto in D Minor, performed by Orchestre National de Bretagne directed by Aurelien Azan Zielinksi with Celia Oneto Bensaid as soloist, took place in Rennes at the Convent of the Jacobins. For all performances, see the year's calendar.

There were as many as 22 radio broadcasts of Kapralova’s music in 2023. Participating broadcasters were from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and the United States, and included 5 national broadcasters: ABC, BBC, CBC, Czech Radio, and Radio France.

Last year saw a record number of new recordings featuring Kapralova’s music. In January, Canadian label Analekta released Francine Kay’s fine album of Czech piano music titled Things Lived and Dreamt that included Kapralova’s April Preludes. Haika Lubcke’s remarkable album Piccolo Legends, released by Swiss label Prospero, followed in February, offering the world premiere of Kapralova’s Tales of a Small Flute (arr. for piccolo). The album was supported by the Kapralova Society. Katelyn Bouska’s Women and War and Peace, released in February by California label Yarlung Records, featured the American pianist’s rendition of Kapralova’s April Preludes. She also accompanied Czech cellist Stepan Filipek in Kapralova’s Ritournelle pour violoncelle et piano, released by Czech Radio’s label Radioservis on the recording Stepan Filipek & Katelyn Bouska: Vol. II. In March, Finish label Alba Records released their album Boulanger – Kapralova, featuring Mirka Viitala’s fine performances of Kapralova’s April Preludes and Sonata Appassionata. A particularly fine rendition of Kapralova’s only sonata was released in October by the US label Blue Griffin Recording. Their album Beginnings and Endings features piano music by six historical women composers, performed by American pianist Asher Ian Armstrong. The same month Czech Radio (Radioservis) released the world premiere recording of Kapralova’s reed trio, performed by Trio Aperto (Barbora Steflova, Pavel Horak, Jan Charfreitag). In December, German label primTON released Komponistinnen im Exil, a CD project featuring the music of four women composers, performed by Duo Kluso (Kathrin von Kieseritzky and Luisa Splett). The disc included Kapralova’s Elegy and Ritornel in an arrangement for saxophone and piano. In addition, Naxos released Pastorale (Suite en miniature, movement 2) as part of their special project of classical night music.

In 2023 Czech Radio made available the orchestral version of Kapralova’s song Sbohem a satecek (Waving Farewell), rounding off their impressive collection of Kapralova’s scores published over the past two decades in collaboration with the Kapralova Society. Their catalogue now includes Kapralova’s Suite en miniature, Suita rustica, Military Sinfonietta, Christmas Prelude for Chamber Orchestra, Partita for piano and string orchestra, Piano Concerto in D Minor, Sad Evening for Voice and Orchestra, Waving Farewell for soprano or tenor and orchestra, Karlu Capkovi—a melodrama for reciter, violin, and piano, String Quartet, Two Choruses for Women’s Voices, and Ilena—a cantata for soli, mixed choir, orchestra, and narrator (choir part).

The following recordings and performances were reviewed in 2023: Francine Kay’s album The Things Lived and Dreamt, released last year by Analekta, and Leonie Karatas’s album La Vita, released in 2022 by EuroArts, received most of the reviews. Francine Kay’s CD was reviewed in Gramophone online (Jed Distler), La Scena Musicale (Pietro Freiburger, Kristen Whittle), Opus musicum (Jan Charypar), The Music Times (Joanne Bender), The WholeNote (Matthew Whitfield), Audiophile Audition (Gary Lemco), AllAboutArtsComs (Rafael de Acha), Winnipeg Classic 107 (Chris Wolf), and CBC Radio 2 (Paolo Pietropaolo). Karatas’s album was reviewed in Czech Music Quarterly (Erik Entwistle), IAWM Journal (Judith Mabary), and Kapralova Society Journal (Erik Entwistle, George Henderson). The disc was also nominated for the Opus Klassik Award 2023 in the category of Young Talent. Haika Lubcke’s Piccolo Legends was reviewed in Klassik Heute (Guido Krawinkel) and Classic Praha (Ondrej Fischer), Kathrin Schmidlin’s album Opus 1 Feminin was reviewed in Music and Theater (Stephan Thomas), and Mirka Viitala’s Boulanger – Kapralova recording received a review in yle Klassinen (Pia Antikainen). Victoria Zhadko’s conducting debut with the Prague State Opera Orchestra in Kapralova’s Suite en miniature, Suita Rustica, and Waving Farewell received a favourable review in KlasikaPlus (Maxmilian Pilmaier), and so did the performance of Kapralova’s reed trio at the International Chamber Music Festival Kutna Hora (Julius Hulek). Performances of Kapralova’s songs by the members of the Lieder Society at the Goethe Institute in Prague were reviewed in Opera Plus (Helena Havlikova); and the Poznan Philharmonic’s and conductor Lukasz Borowicz’s performance of Kapralova’s Suita Rustica at the 2023 Moravian Autumn Festival was reviewed in Klassika Plus (Karla Hofmannova) and Opus musicum (Petr Meckovsky).

In 2023, we published the twenty-first volume of Kapralova Society Journal: a journal of women in music. The winter issue featured Asher Ian Armstrong’s article Ephemeral Incandescence: the April Preludes of Vitezslava Kapralova and Karla Hartl’s introduction to her upcoming publication Vitezslava Kapralova: Thematic Catalogue of the Works. Tom Moore’s series Women of the 19th-Century Salon continued with a vignette on Mlle. N. Philibert, and the issue was rounded off with the usual In Review section, including reviews by Wendy Suiter and George Henderson. The summer issue opened with Holly Mathieson’s Hacking the Canon: Cataloguing the Excluded, and also featured Elia Sanaleuterio‘s and Sandra Soler’s article Maria Vallès Sostres in the Catalan Press: Reviewing the Short Life of a Child Prodigy to Promote Greater Equality in a Coeducational Setting.

We would like to thank these artists who promoted Kapralova’s legacy in 2023:

American Youth Symphony, Allan Armstrong, Asher Ian Armstrong, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Eliran Avni, John Azpuru, Iris Azquinezer, Tomas Barinka, Kristin Barone-Samadi, Beach Cities Symphony, Carson Becke, Celia Oneto Bensaid, Berliner Arzte Orchester, Anna Betka, Kirsten Blair, Lisa Maria Blanco, Lukasz Borowicz, Paolo Bortolameolli, Katelyn Bouska, Alexander Breitenbach, Brno Philharmonic, Rhys Burgess, Rachel Burkhalter, Marketa Cabajova, Canticum Ostrava, Vojtech Cervinka, Fred Chu, Leora Cohen, Catherine Compton, Radka Dedicova, Stephane Deneve, Vaclav Dlask, Danny Driver, Viktorie Duganpere, Duo Kluso, Adam Dvoracek, Samantha Ege, Chrysanthie Emmanouilidou, Erik Entwistle, Ka-Hou Fan, Natasha Farny, Stepan Filipek, Anna Fortova, Vendula Galdova, Onute Grazinyte, Chloe Hanslip, Sam Haywood, Emilia Hoving, Lukas Hrncarek, Alena Hron, Jan Hudecek, Carlos Izcaray, Max Jacobs, Monika Jagerova, Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, Ani Kalayjian, Francine Kay, Rachel Kibler, Kathrin von Kieseritzky, Kenneth Kiesler, Ye-Ji Kim, Diana Kollaeikova, Anthony Kraus, Tereza Laskova, Tara Laudie, Simon Lepper, Haika Lubcke, Harumi Makiyama, Jan Mara, Paul Marleyn, Dario Martin, Filip Martinka, Lauren McAllister, Ramiro Miranda, Tamara Morozova, John Thomas Morris, NeoKlasik Orchestra, James Newby, Vitek Nosek, Orchestre National de Bretagne, Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie, Orkiestra Filharmonii Poznanskiej, Antonio Oyarzabal, Pacifica Chamber Orchestra, Levon Parikian, Dylan Perez, Jonathan Powell, Prague State Opera Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Daniel Raiskin, Michel Raison, Rehearsal Orchestra, Milos Repicky, Erin Ridge, Saint Paul Civic Symphony, Kathrin Schmidlin, Jan Phillip Schulze, Katerina Sedlarova, Sinfonia of Leeds, Vanda Sipova, Kira Slovacek, Nicky Spence, Luisa Splett, Kiryl Stankow, Jeffrey Stirling, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Filharmonia, Lucy Thalange, Trio Aperto, Alex Tuan, Eugene Tzigane, University of Michigan Orchestra, Vilem Veverka, Mirka Viitala, Tomas Visek, Jana Vondru, Elizabeth Watts, Paul Wingfield, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Rosalind Wong, Victoria Zhadko, Aurelien Azan Zielinski

ABC Classic Radio, Rafael de Acha, Alba Records, AllAboutArtsComs, Analekta, Pia Antikainen, Audiophile Audition, Petr Bakla, Jindrich Balek, BBC 3, Joanne Bender, Blue Griffin Recording, Brno Conservatory, Cambridge University, Carriage House Concerts, CBC Radio 2, Centre Tchèque in Paris, Jan Charypar, Timothy Cheek, Chelsea Arts Club, Cheltenham Music Festival, Crossover Media, Czech Embassy in Havana, Czech Music Quarterly, Czech Radio 3, Czech Radio D-dur, Czech Radio Publishing House, Ondrej Danek, Detect Classic Festival, Jed Distler, Peter Duffy, Festspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ondrej Fischer, Pietro Freiburger, Friends of Vienna Concert Series, Eugene Gates, Gezeiten Konzerte Series, Goethe Institute in Prague, Gramophone, Anne Gross, Helena Havlikova, George Henderson, Karla Hofmannova, Alena Hron, Julius Hulek, IAWM Journal, Inside Music, International Chamber Music Festival Kutna Hora, JAMU, Klasika Plus, Klassik Heute, Noemi Krausova, Guido Krawinkel, Kromeriz Conservatory, La Scena Musicale, Gary Lemco, Lieder Society Prague, Lives United, Judith Mabary, David Malat, Dimitri Malignan, Petr Meckovsky, Vitezslav Mikes, Mississipi University for Women, Moravian Autumn Festival, Moravian Composers Club, Maria Anna Mozart Gesselschaft Salzburg, Kai Hinrich Muller, Music at Paxton Festival, Music by Women Festival, Music for Montauk, Naxos, Iva Nevoralova, Barbora de Nunes-Cambraia, Tereza Opalkova, Opera Plus, Opus Klassik, Opus musicum, Sakari Oramo, Oxford University, Paolo Pietropaolo, Maxmilian Pilmaier, Ondrej Pivoda, Pontiac Enchante Concert Series, Prague State Opera-Musica non grata, Prague Summer Nights Festival, primTON Records, Princeton University, Prospero, Radio Classic Praha, Radio Devin, Radio France, Radio NDR3, Radioservis, Royal Albert Hall, Martin Rudovsky, Skipton Music, Sociedad Filarmonica de Valencia, Renata Spisarova, Strand International Piano Series, Wendy Suiter, Sunshine Concert Series, Alice Tabery, Take Effect Reviews, Thames Concert Series, The Music Times, The Whole Note, Stephan Thomas, University of Toronto Faculty of Music, WFMT, Matthew Whitfield, Kristen Whittle, Wigmore Hall, Winnipeg’s Classic 107, Chris Wolf, Mio Yamauchi, Yarlung Records, yle Klassinen, Petr Zaruba, and Zion Lutheran Church Elca.

Special thanks to the Czech Radio Publishing House and their editors Robert Skarda and Lucie Slivonova for their unequivocal support to Kapralova’s music over the years.