home

SILENCED: Unsung Voices of the 20th Century (Ian Koziara, Bradley Moore). Cedille Records CDR 90000 231 (2024).
This is a good place to point out that Koziara, a veteran Wagnerian, approaches these songs with a strong dramatic tenor, secure tone, and a pleasing timbre. This is Lieder singing on the operatic side, conveyed with passion yet never beyond the limits of art song. Pianist Bradley Moore is in full sympathy with the singer’s approach; he plays with personality and confident musicianship. One is struck reading the excellent program notes by how strangely fate dealt with four talented composers deprived of a settled existence in turbulent times. Schreker and Zemlinsky fell into obscurity and unpopularity after years of major achievement, but the saddest outcome befell the precocious Czech composer-conductor Vitezslava Kapralova, who was born in Brno in 1915, the daughter of a composer and singer. She counted Martinu among her composition teachers and among conducting mentors Charles Munch and Vaclav Talich. In 1937 she became the first woman to conduct the Czech Philharmonic, and her considerable body of music was much admired before she died in Nazi-occupied France in 1940 at the age of 25—the case is clouded by the possibility that typhoid fever was misdiagnosed as tuberculosis. Kapralova was only 17 when she wrote the two songs of op. 4, titled “Jitro” (Morning) and “Osirelý” (Orphaned). With unexpected authority they plunge us into a mature late-Romantic idiom that is seamlessly woven into the styles of Strauss, Korngold, and Zemlinsky. I don’t necessarily hear more advanced harmony in her op. 10 songs, which set texts by the Czech Nobel laureate in literature, Jaroslav Seifert, but this is because Kapralova was so well established in her Romanticism and still young. Passing dissonances are ensconced in the chromaticism of Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, not the Second Viennese School. In the last song, “Jarni pout” (Spring Fair), the sprightly folk rhythms echo Bartok and her teacher Martinu. Tenderness and yearning are also well within Kapralova’s reach. The mood of exultancy suits Koziara’s dramatic tenor perfectly—we are in the terrain of young Siegfried—so it was wise to place these early Schreker songs at the top of the program. Koziara’s range includes tenderness and quiet reflection as well. It’s a pleasure to find an American Lieder singer of such dedication and musical gifts.
From a review by Huntley Dent for Fanfare, Jan/Feb. 2025.

Janacek, ale i Novak a Kapralova. Janackovo kvarteto delalo osvetu.
Program: Leos Janacek Listy duverne, Vitezslava Kapralova: Smyccovy kvartet, op. 8, Vitezslav Novak, Smyccovy kvartet D-dur. Janackovo kvarteto: Milos Vacek, Richard Kruzik, vno; Jan Reznicek, vl; Lukas Polak, vcl.
Sazkou na jistotu byl koncert Janackova kvarteta, zarazeny do posledniho dne festivalu Janacek Brno 2024. Nedelni odpoledni program prilakal do ustredniho prostoru secesni vily Löw-Beer pocetne publikum urcite i diky programu: figuroval v nem Leos Janacek a zasluzne i Vitezslav Novak a Vitezslava Kapralova. . . . Janackovy Listy duverne jsou v reprezentativnim festivalovem programu tohoto souboru jaksi samozrejmosti. Osvetou však lze trochu v nadsazce nazvat uvedeni jedineho Smyccoveho kvartetu Vitezslavy Kapralove. Na koncerte zaznel jako skvele zvladnuta a vyspela kompozice, vystavena kaleidoskopicky, ale z vetsich ploch, plna promen a zvratu mezi lyrikou, misty az vroucnou, a mladistvou zivosti, mezi lidovymi motivy, unisony a polyfonii, mezi klasictejsi zdrzenlivosti a disonancemi, ovsem kontrolovanymi a ukotvenymi. Provedeni skladby, ktera se prozatim tak casto nehraje, bylo strhujici a objevne
From a review by Petr Veber for Klasika Plus, 25 November 2024.

Peter Mallinson: Brief Encounters. MERIDIAN CDE8467782 (2 CDs)
Casting their nets over the last century, Peter Mallinson and Lynn Arnold have traveled the depths of the seas to unearth composers who were largely neglected, or unfortunately had all-too-brief lives. ... I found Vitezslava Kapralova’s acerbic pair of Ritournelles the stand-out work. She was a student of Boulanger and Martinu, and had developed a highly personal and strong style, cut tragically short by her death at just 25.
From a review by Jeanne Talbot for The Strad, November 2004.

Ian Koziara and Bradley Moore: Silenced – Unsung Voices of the 20th Century. Cedille Records.
Kapralova's extraordinary talent is well-accounted for by Dve písne and Jablko s klína, the works also performed by the recital duo. Koziara can sing with the kind of stentorian force and passion befitting a tenor who's sung at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and Oper Frankfurt. The Chicago native's been called “an exciting Wagner tenor” (The New York Times), and a number of performances on Silenced reflect the power needed to deliver the composer's epic works. But Koziara's as capable of adjusting the volume to sing with tenderness when the material demands it (see Kapralova's “Ukolebavka”), and in accompanying his voice with Moore's piano the recording is generally more intimate than boisterous. The pianist has been a recital partner to artists such as Renee Fleming and Susan Graham and complements Koziara with immense sensitivity. Both musicians benefit from the arrangement when their individual and collective artistry is vividly accentuated by their pairing.In partnership with the pianist, the tenor could conceivably have fashioned a more commercial recording featuring lieder by Schubert, Mahler, and the like instead of one focused on material by lesser known figures. But in presenting works by Schreker, Zemlinsky, and, in particular, Kapralova, they've done the composers a great service. Silent no more, their voices deserve to be heard, and these laudable recital partners have done their part to ensure they live on.
From an unsigned review for Textura, November 2024.

A Singer Sees The Light In Dark World Of Music Suppressed By Nazis. Silenced – Unsung Voices of the 20th Century. Ian Koziara, tenor. Bradley Moore, piano. Cedille CDR 90000 231. Total time: 68:00.
For many listeners, the meltingly beautiful vocal writing of Kapralova will be the disc’s most treasurable discovery, particularly in Koziara’s responsive handling of her Opus 2 songs, and the Op. 14 Sbohem a satecek (Waving farewell), which concludes the disc. Although Kapralova was not of a group specifically targeted by the Reich, those circumstances undoubtedly led to her marginalization. Stranded in Paris, where her scholarship was revoked, Kapralova was forced into squalid circumstances and died of typhoid fever at 25. “Kapralova was the most important line item for me,” Koziara says. “Something wonderful about her is a unique harmonic language that yet resides in a fairly conventional aesthetic. One who has never heard any Czech composer can listen to her and enjoy themselves. ‘Jitro’ will forever be a starting piece in my recitals. It is gorgeously written for piano, and for someone who died at 25, she had an unbelievably intuitive understanding of how voices work.”
From an article/review by Mark T. Ketterson for Classical Voice of North America: Journal of the Music Critics Association of North America, 6 November 2024.

Kapralova’s debut at the 2024 BBC Proms
Given the current musical climate of placing emphasis on women composers and conductors, it was a bright idea for the Czech Philharmonic to open their second concert with the remarkable Military Sinfonietta by Vitezslava Kapralova. She had, in fact, made her debut conducting the Czech Philharmonic in this work, her graduation piece, at the age of twenty-two in the presence of Edvard Benes, then Czechoslovak President, and she went on to present it at the opening concert of the 1938 ISCM Festival in London, conducting the BBC orchestra. The English critics rather patronisingly described her on that occasion as “the little girl conductor.” Apart from her prowess with the baton, she was an enormously talented composer, as this stirring fifteen-minute piece proves. She studied in Brno with Janacek pupil Vilem Petrzelka, then in Prague with Dvorák pupil Vitezslav Novak. The sinfonietta stems from the latter period before she went to Paris to study with Martinu, and the Slovak character of some of the themes suggests Novak’s influence. From the striking fanfare-like opening to the powerful, striving peroration, the score demonstrates remarkable technical accomplishment. It simply teems with ideas, switches mood from militancy to pastoral musings with ease, and benefits from orchestration that is both imaginative and colourful, especially in the percussion department, which includes piano. Concerning the Janacek-like title, Kapralova explained that, despite the ominous times (Czechoslovakia threatened by Hitler’s expansionist ambitions), her Military Sinfonietta, which she dedicated to President Benes, was conceived not as a “battle-cry,” but in order to depict the psychological need to defend that which is most sacred to the nation. With evident enthusiasm Hrusa and his Czech musicians played the piece for all it was worth, bringing both precision and conviction to their interpretation and driving the music to a compelling and, dare one say it, militant conclusion which brought the house down.
From the review "The Royal Albert Hall reverberates to Czech Music! Patrick Lambert reports on a high point in the Proms season," written for Dvorak Society Newsletter No. 148 (November 2024): 10.

Silenced: Unsung Voices of the 20th Century Ian Koziara (tenor), Bradley Moore (piano). Cedille CDR90000231[68]
Vitezslava Kapralova’s talent at 17 was, as the song goes, bustin’ out all over. She was excellently trained, had a perceptive ear, and was a fine pianist. Her Two Songs of 1932 offer contrasting sides of her; the first richly evocative with dappled piano writing and the second full of refined teenage melancholy but framed in a more extrovert way. Her four-song cycle Jablko s klína followed three years later – compact, stylish with some refined piano sonorities and subtle lyric lines. I tend to favour the recording of Dana Buresova and Timothy Cheek in their all- Kapralova disc on Supraphon in these songs. Navzdy, Op. 12 consists of three songs from 1936-37 and again there is much colouristic pleasure to be taken not only from the piano writing but from her clever contrasts in mood and texture. A longer setting is the song Sbohem a satecek or ‘Waving Farewell’, a passionate declamation that gently subsides. Koziara sings with considerable sensitivity. His voice is warm and focused and Moore – an eminent name for an assisting artist – proves to be an equally sympathetic and stylistically apt colleague.
From a review by Jonathan Woolf for musicwebinternational, October 30, 2024.

Une Tchèque à Paris. Vitezslava Kapralova, The Completed Works. CPO 555568-2.
La direction élancée d’Alena Hron en flatte aussi les harmonies acidulées, les arêtes vives, les rudesses rythmiques. Partout, les musiciens d’Ostrava passent de la mélancolie à l’enthousiasme et de l’ombre à la lumière avec une prodigieuse aisance. Ils s’imposent de loin devant les rares gravures rivales.
From a review by Anne Ibos-Augé for Diapason No. 738, October 2024.

Brief Encounters. Peter Mallinson (viola), Lynn Arnold (piano), Shirley Turner (violin). Meridian CDE 84677/8-2 [2 CDs: 138]
There’s something here for everyone – assuming you like the viola and enjoy a jaunt, collecting nuggets as you go. I was sceptical when the twofer arrived, partly because of the profusion of miniatures and the number of arrangements and transcriptions, but it won me over. ... Vitezslava Kapralova’s Ritournelle is a tart and playful work and one of her last. ... Bravo to all concerned, to Mallinson and Arnold in particular, and to the well-judged acoustic and recording.
From a review by Jonathan Woolf for musicwebinternational, September 22, 2024.

A lively showcase for a great central European orchestra at the Proms
As the Proms season enters the home straight, it’s moved up a gear, with a string of high profile European guest orchestras. First up was the Czech Philharmonic playing Suk’s Asrael Symphony under Jakub Hrusa before moving on to Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass the following night. These grand, glittering monuments of Czech music were garnished with a couple of relative rarities – Dvorak’s Piano Concerto, played by Mao Fujita, and the Military Sinfonietta, composed in 1937 by (the then 22-year-old) Vitezslava Kapralova, who died at the age of 25. Kapralova’s composition is a captivating thing, starting out with fanfares and strutting march rhythms before proceeding to, well, pretty much anything you can imagine. It’s unmistakably the work of a young composer; there’s that gleeful, kid-in-a-toyshop energy, with ideas and colours flying in all directions. Xylophone? Bring it on. What if the violins played the main theme on harmonics? Only one way to find out! It’s the composer’s superabundant imagination, rather than any more formal process, that makes the Military Sinfonietta so compelling – and in the light of her unfulfilled promise, so poignant. It certainly made a lively showcase for the sound of this great central European orchestra.
From a review by Richard Bratby for The Spectator Magazine, 7 September 2024.

The Czech Philharmonic at the Proms
Enterprisingly, the Czech Philharmonic began their second BBC Prom with Vitezslava Kapralova’s Military Sinfonietta: a protege of Martinu, the tragically short-lived Kapralova wrote it while she was still a student. It is immediately clear that she could handle large forces (including triple woodwind, six horns, percussion, harp, piano and celeste) with energy and confidence. On a first hearing, alternating fanfares and quieter episodes fall well short of fulfilling the expectations inevitably aroused by the title (Janacek had died less than a decade earlier): but then cellos and double basses introduce a lovely episode, with quiet timpani and muted brass, and I was won over. Like a Czech version of Vaughan Williams’s Cotswold rapture, the music seemed to open onto a vision of rolling countryside and made sense of Kapralova’s words quoted in the program: ‘the composition does not represent a battle cry, but it depicts the psychological need to defend that which is most sacred to the nation.’
The music is a brave and heartfelt response to the threat of imminent Nazi aggression – Hitler’s Special Military Operation, we might now say. It becomes faster and more brilliant, using a wide range of orchestral colours: a lovely trumpet solo, xylophone and bells, bass clarinet, stirring use of the horns; even fourfold bass drum strokes, recalling the shattering climax to the first movement of Suk’s Asrael Symphony the previous evening. Ominous fanfares resurface, but the work ends in an explosion of colour and optimism. I cannot imagine it ever being played with more sensitivity and conviction than it was here: almost as moving as last season’s performance of Dora Pejacevic’s symphony under Sakari Oramo. Pejacevic died at 37; Kapralova at only 25. Thank you, Czech Philharmonic and Jakub Hrusa, for bringing us her music.
From a review by Chris Kettle for Seen and Heard International, 30 August 2024.

Prom 50: Czech Philharmonic. Jakub Hrusa conducts Vitezslava Kapralova’s Military Sinfonietta and Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, with Mao Fujita playing Dvorak’s Piano Concerto. Live on BBC Radio 3.
The short-lived (through illness) Vitezslava Kapralova’s Military Sinfonietta (1937) opened the concert, a terrific piece, of swagger and pastoral reflection, of energy and expression, pulsation and reverie, with (these) English ears sometimes finding correspondences with Arthur Bliss’s music.
From a review by Colin Anderson for colinscolumn.com, 28 August 2024.

Kapralova: The Completed Orchestral Works. Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava / Alena Hron, CPO 555568-2.
In turns tempestuous and rhapsodic, eerie and excitable, the Piano Concerto is the most substantial piece here, though there is also a lot to enjoy in the likes of the boisterous Suita Rustica and charming Prélude de Noël.
From a review by Jeremy Pound for the BBC Music Magazine (August 2024): 86.

Prom 50, 28 August 2024. Czech Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Jakub Hrusa.
The Czech Phiharmonic is one of the world’s finest orchestras and it’s a joy to see and hear it filling the packed-to-capacity Royal Albert Hall and living up to its well deserved reputation with an engaging all-Czech programme. [...] Goodness knows why few of us have heard of Vitezslava Kapralova who died tragically young (aged 25). Maybe being female didn’t help. Her 1937 Military Sinfonietta has waited nearly 90 years for its first Proms performance. It’s an interesting piece, played here with splendid dynamic control. It was written as a patriotically defensive statement against Nazi incursion but was never intended to be aggressive. The tone is often wistful with attractive solo work fron two violins and from oboe and bassoon. And I really liked the way Hrusa drove the relentless, escalating rhythm in the strings with brass over the top just before the end, then arriving at a rather moving, grand melody. This piece deserves to be heard more often.
From a review by Susan Elkin for her column at susanelkin.co.uk, August 2024.

Janackova filharmonie / Alena Hron - Vitezslava Kapralova: Kompletni orchestralni dilo. Dvojalbum, 9 skladeb, 103:17, 2024.
... stihla vytvorit neobycejne osobite dilo do svych petadvaceti, kdy zemrela ve francouzske emigraci behem druhe svetove valky. Dirigentka Hron s Janackovou filharmonii natocila Kapralovou nezne, dukladne a s obrovskym pochopenim.
From a review by Milan Bator for Magazin Patriot, 30 July 2024.

Ceske velikanky i opomijene rodacky zazni na Festivalu Krumlov
Mlada skladatelka je jedna z mala zen, jejiz tvorba se, stejne jako u skladatelskych velikanu, deli na obdobi ve kterych skladala, podle mista, kde zrovna zila. Z raneho brnenskeho obdobi si posluchaci poslechnou na koncertu prave Legendu a Burlesku op. 3, zatimco Elegie by patrily do jejiho druheho parizskeho obdobi, temer ke konci života. Tato nesmirne nadana mlada žena je stejne jako jeji tvorba obpletena mnohymi spekulacemi, nespocet autografu se posmrtne nenasel, prestoze o dilech informovala svoje blizke okoli a duvody jeji predcasne smrti jsou tez casto zpochybnovany. Jedine co zustava objektivne nemenne i vice než sto let po jejim narozeni je jeji brilantni tvorba a dirigentsky um.
From a preview for OperaPlus, July 2024.

KAPRALOVA: The Completed Orchestral Works (Hron)
Vitezslava Kapralova (1915–40) might have been a leading composer of the last century had she not died of typhoid fever at the age of 25. This collection of her completed orchestral works shows us a young composer whose musical personality is already discernible. Pianist Rudolf Firkusny described her temperament as ‘unpredictable’, and this is true of her music as well. Yet how deftly she moves from one idea to the next. Her music almost always flows in a way that sounds utterly natural and right.
At a quarter of an hour, her Military Sinfonietta (1937) covers an enormous emotional range but its many seams are sewn together with remarkable economy. There’s less of a distinct Czech accent here and elsewhere than one might expect – it’s strongest in the Suita rustica (1938), based on Czech folk songs and dances, with a middle movement that pays homage to Smetana – and it’s clear she also had a strong affinity for Debussy and Bartok.
Kapralova wrote her Piano Concerto (1935) while still a student in Brno, and it’s the kind of big, colourful, unabashedly romantic and hugely entertaining showpiece I’d be delighted to encounter in the concert hall. Tomas Vrana imbues the solo part with tremendous flair, and I prefer his interpretation to Amy I Lin Cheng’s more demure account on an all-Kapralova Naxos album recorded with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. That said, Kenneth Kiesler’s interpretation of the Military Sinfonietta is more vividly characterised, but that Naxos disc excludes the Suita rustica as well as the superb Partita for piano and strings (1939) – a work that’s closely related to Martinu’s Double Concerto. I also prefer Veronika Rovna’s sensitive and pitch-perfect reading of the orchestral song Waving Farewell (1937) to Nicholas Phan’s.
The Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava play extremely well for [the conductor Hron] and, my niggling comments about the Military Sinfonietta aside, these interpretations do full justice to Kapralova’s art.
From a review by Andrew Farach-Colton for Gramophone, July 2024.

Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940). The Completed Orchestral Works. cpo 555 568-2 [2 CDs: 103]
The subtitle of this twofer is ‘The Completed Orchestral Works – ‘completed’ not complete, as it doesn’t include those works that Kapralova left unfinished. We don’t get, for instance, Sad Evening (Smutny vecer), which you can find on Naxos in its première recording, as the orchestration of the final bars was reconstructed by Timothy Cheek.The core of her achievement orchestrally lies in the Military Sinfonietta, the Partita for Strings and the Piano Concerto. It was the Military Symphony (1937) that first brought her to prominence, and it’s performed here with a regrettably slack sense of characterisation and development ... [t]he Naxos performance takes a far better tempo. ... The Piano Concerto has been increasingly recorded over the last few years. Tomas Vrana is CPO’s pianist and plays with admirably fleet fingers, but the recording is not as detailed as Supraphon’s nor is the performance as romanticised. If you want to delve deeper with this youthful concerto, seek out Alice Rajnohova with Tomas Hanus and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic on Radioservis; they are the most youthful and athletic of all. Vrana also appears in the performance of the Partita for piano and strings of 1939. His neoclassical cadences haunt the opening Allegro energico and the pianist brings out these elements well. Where the performance loses is in the central movement where, though sensitive to string colouration and mood, it sounds much more of an Andante or even Adagio than the marked tempo of Andantino. Waving Farewell (Sbohem a satecek) is a brief orchestral song with words by the poet Vitezslav Nezal (1900-1958) and it’s well sung by Veronika Rovna. ... The remainder of the programme gathers up those lighter pieces that remain from her sadly small catalogue of orchestral works. This is a useful collection of Kapralova’s orchestral music. Superior, alternative recordings may not be easy to come across, so the unproblematic recorded quality will act in its favour.
From a review by Jonathan Woolf for musicwebinternational, July 21, 2024.

Vitezslava Kapralova: The Completed Orchestral Works. 2-CD 555 568-2 CPO (2024). Recorded May-June 2022 in Ostrava. TT 103:17. Tomas Vrana, Veronika Rovna, Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, Alena Hron. CD1: Suite en miniature, Military Sinfonietta, Suita rustica, Waving Farewell, Prélude de Noël, Fanfare. CD2: Partita, Piano Concerto, Suita.
The double album of Kapralova’s orchestral works (plus a piano suite as a bonus track) maps a barely decade-long musical career that was tragically cut short at the dawn of WWII. The CPO editors made an executive decision to include only those orchestral compositions by Kapralova that were completed and orchestrated by the composer herself. [...] Performances by the Janacek Philharmonic under the baton of the up-and-coming conductor Alena Hron are consistently solid throughout this 103-minute orchestral program, even offering a few new insights into the presented works. The neobaroque Partita for strings and piano, the orchestral miniature Prélude de Noël, and the orchestral song Waving Farewell are the cases in point. The soloist in Kapralova’s outstanding art song has a pristine voice, clear articulation, and good diction. She and the orchestra in a supportive role succeed in building up the momentum that this quasi-operatic song requires, placing their rendition among the best to date. The double album also includes the composer’s two orchestral suites, Suite en miniature and Suita rustica; the latter pays tribute to Stravinsky’s early ballets and has become immensely popular with audiences in recent years. The best known composition by Kapralova, the lushly orchestrated Military Sinfonietta, also receives a good reading from the Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, if not quite the energy of the University of Michigan Symphony conducted by Kenneth Kiesler whose recording was released by Naxos in 2021. The final classic presented on the album, Piano Concerto in D Minor, is a truly exciting work, somewhat evocative of Rachmaninov’s writing. [...] [T]here’s no doubt that the cpo double album is well positioned to take its place among the most important releases of Kaprálová’s music to date — certainly a desirable recording to have in one’s collection, and a must for lovers of the composer's music.
From a review by Karla Hartl for the Kapralova Society Journal 22, no. 2 (Summer 2024): 19.

Skvele promysleny i zivouci konec tricate sezony Prague Phiharmonia
Orchestr Prague Philharmonia v sobotu 15. cervna uzavrel svou jubilejní 30. sezonu koncertem v prazskem Rudolfinu. Poutavy program obsahoval dila Bohuslava Martinu, Franze Liszta, Vitezslavy Kapralove a Ludwiga van Beethovena. Sefdirigent Emmanuel Villaume a solista George Li svou vitalitou a snahou zprostredkovali svezi umelecky zazitek. . . . Suita rustica, op. 19 Vitezslavy Kapralove má pozoruhodnou strukturu – v jejim srdci se nachází nejprostejsi, lidove ladena veta s furiantem. Ta je sevrena podstatne komplexnejsi prvni a treti casti, které berou z vlivu Stravinskeho baletu, dojde i na ctyrhlasou fugu. O vysoke umelecke hodnote dila nemuze byt pochyb a osobne z ni mam i konzistentnejsi zazitek nez z takove Dvorakovy Ceské suity. Umí dojmout (smycce, fletna a triangl ve druhe vete), ale i roztancovat (treti veta by si mezi studenty snadno mohla vyslouzit nalepku „banger“). Tim se vracim k prvnímu odstavci o dobre zvolenem programu – objevny poslech, ale pritom zcela bezbolestny.
From a review by Zbynek Pilbauer for KlasikaPlus.cz, 17 June 2024.

Vitezslava Kapralova: The Completed Orchestral Works cpo 555 568-2, 2 CD • 1h 43min • 2022
Kapralovas offizielles Opus 1 – die Suite en miniature von 1935 – geht auf eine 4 Jahre ältere Klavierfassung zurück, die hier quasi als Bonus ebenfalls vorliegt. Nicht nur interessant, um sich die enorme Entwicklung der Komponistin in kürzester Zeit bewusst zu machen, sondern auch, weil diese Klavierfassung in den bisherigen Gesamtaufnahmen ihrer Klavierwerke unterschlagen wird. Zum direkten Vergleich der beiden Versionen muss man allerdings die CD wechseln. Bereits hier beweist die Janácek-Philharmonie aus Ostrava, dass sie dem doch typisch tschechischen Idiom Kapralovas besser gerecht wird als etwa die Naxos-Aufnahme aus Michigan. . . . Vom Klavierkonzert d-Moll op. 7 gibt es mittlerweile mehrere gute Aufnahmen. Neben der CD aus Michigan mit der Solistin Amy I-Lin Cheng hat Supraphon erst kürzlich eine Neueinspielung (Marek Kozak) herausgebracht, die zu Recht hochgelobt wurde. Dennoch muss diese sich von der vorliegenden Darbietung nochmals deutlich geschlagen geben: wegen des vorgenannten Enthusiasmus von Orchester und Dirigentin – der erste Satz ist übrigens nicht umsonst mit Allegro entusiastico überschrieben – vor allem aber der überaus leidenschaftlichen, glutvollen Wiedergabe des Pianisten Tomas Vrana. Er meistert nicht nur die noch an spätromantische Traditionen anknüpfende Virtuosität mit Bravour, sondern gestaltet jedes Detail emotional völlig schlüssig und ungemein klangschön, ohne übers Ziel hinauszuschießen. Man höre nur das lange Solo – mehr als eine simple Kadenz – gegen Ende des Kopfsatzes, das dem Zuhörer fast den Atem verschlägt oder die jazz-inspirierte Begeisterung im Finale. Alleine dieses Stück rechtfertigt den Erwerb der Produktion. . . . Besondere Erwähnung verdient das Orchesterlied Sbohem a satecek, das es mühelos mit den besten Gattungsbeiträgen Richard Strauss‘ aufnehmen kann: Veronika Rovna singt es vorzüglich, jedoch etwas zu brav. Auch aufnahmetechnisch auf hohem Level, wobei der stellenweise großzügige Hall Geschmackssache ist, erspielt sich das Doppelalbum eine ausdrückliche Empfehlung.
From a review by Martin Blaumeiser for Klassik Heute, 10 June 2024.

Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940). Samtliche komplettierte Orchesterwerke
Leider zu früh vollendet... Was hätte diese Frau noch für Musik komponieren können! Doch es war ihr nicht vergönnt. Mit 25 Jahren verstarb die Tschechin und hinterließ ein Orchesterwerk, das cpo nun auf einer Doppel-CD vorgelegt hat (+ einer kleinen Klavier-Solo-Zugabe). Eine großartige Würdigung dieser frühbegabten Komponistin. Hört man diese neun Werke durch, so kommt man aus dem Staunen nicht heraus! Ganz stark im kompositorischen Stil ihrer Heimat verhaftet ist ihre Musik immer tonal begründet. Die frühen Komposition sind harmonischer. Das tolle Klavierkonzert klingt zuweilen nach Rachmaninov, dann wieder nach Janacek oder ihren Lehrer Martinu. Ihre "Military Sinfonietta" ist der Sinfonietta Janaceks deutlich verbunden. Und doch behält ihre Musiksprache immer eine ganz persönliche Note. Nichts ist abgekupfert oder nachgeahmt. Eine früh vollendete Komponistin, die auch eine souveräne Dirigentin gewesen sein soll. Fazit: Es lohnt sich eine intensive Bekannschaft mit ihrer Musik zu machen, zumal sie von der renommierten Janacek Philharmonie unter der jungen tschechischen Dirigentin Alena Hron bestens dargeboten wird. Eine gute Aufnahmetechnik und ein sehr informatives Booklet unterstützen diese musikalische Entdeckungsreise.
Review by meiernberg for jpc. May 6, 2024.

Vitezslava Kapralova - The Completed Orchestral Works; Suite en miniature + Military Sinfonietta + Suita rustica + Waving Farewell + Pre´lude de Noe¨l + Fanfare (1939) + Partita + Klavierkonzert in d-Moll + Suita; Veronika Rovna, Sopran, Tomas Vrana, Klavier, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Alena Hron; # cpo 555 568–2; Aufnahme 05 + 06.2022, Veröffentlichung 03.05.2024 (103'17)
Das Programm dieses Albums ist recht gemischt und zeigt in der Tat sowohl die slawische Leidenschaft als auch die von mährischer Volksmusik beeinflusste Melodik. Am nachhaltigsten werden dabei die Partita per pianoforte ed orchestra d’archi op. 20 und das Klavierkonzert op. 7, die von Tomas Vrana sehr gut gespielt werden. Er hat im Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava unter Alena Hron aufmerksam ihn begleitende Mitstreiter. Das Orchester zeigt auch in den übrigen Stücken ein solides Niveau und musiziert inspiriert unter der Leitung der tschechischen Dirigentin, die die Musik immer sehr stimmungsvoll und farbig werden lässt.
From a review by Remy Franck for Pizzicato, May 6, 2024.

Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos Kovarovic/Kapralova/Borkovec Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra Marek Kozak (piano), Robert Jindra (conductor) Supraphon SU 4337-2, released 8 March 2024.
Supraphon has released this excellent CD featuring three piano concertos by Czech composers that are rarely heard. They don’t often appear on the contemporary concert scene. In my opinion, this is a mystery since all three are of the highest quality and well worth listening to. [...] [Kapralova’s] piano concerto is remarkable to have been composed by a 20-year-old. It has a distinctive style and employs a large orchestra and there is a sense of a real mastery of the interplay between the piano soloist and the brass and woodwind sections. [...] I strongly recommend this CD as more than a curiosity but a very rewarding listening experience.
From a review by Alan Rosenfelder for the Dvorak Society Newsletter, No. 146 (May 2024): 13–14.

Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos Kovarovic/Kapralova/Borkovec Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra Marek Kozak (piano), Robert Jindra (conductor) Supraphon SU 4337-2 (2024).
The soloist, Marek Kozak, is a superb advocate for these widely differing works, providing thoughtful and persuasively idiomatic interpretations. Robert Jindra and the Prague Radio Symphony, somewhat more distantly recorded than the soloist, supply dependable if occasionally slightly untidy accompaniment.
BBC Music Magazine, May 2024.

Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos. Kovarovic, Kapralova. Borkovec. Marek Kozak, pno, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra / Robert Jindra. Supraphon SU 4337-2 [75].
I’d say only two of the concertos in Supraphon’s disc are ‘forgotten’ so let’s start with the one that’s remembered, Vitezslava Kapralova’s Piano Concerto of 1935. The opening movement was performed at her graduation ceremony, played by Ludvik Kundera – Milan Kundera’s father – with Kapralova herself conducting. It must have made quite an appeal to the senses as it’s full of florid romanticism, dappled piano writing and laden with virtuoso runs. The central movement is exceptionally brief, limpid and polyphonic, and prefaces an attaca into the finale, which is much more percussive, free-flowing and encodes a jazzy ostinato figure. A reflective panel offers contrast before the extrovert final flourishes. The wind writing is vivid and the orchestration pert and even chic. The young pianist Marek Kozak is on a par with the soloist on Naxos’s all-Kapralova disc, Amy I-Lin Cheng, and their tempo decisions are similar, though Kozak has by far the better orchestral accompaniment. A trickier disc to find offers much stiffer opposition – Alice Rajnohova with Tomas Hanus and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic on Radioservis. They are swifter throughout and bring a greater sense of daredevilry than their rivals.
From a review by Jonathan Woolf for musicwebinternational.com, April 2024.

Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos
Kovarovic’s work has a high Romantic sweep, foregrounding the soloist with passages of infectious brio. Kapralova’s written as her graduation piece, peers into the future with wonderfully reckless keyboard runs . . . Borkovec’s second piano concerto, full of colour and activity, bears traces of Bartok and Shostakovich. This beautifully played and recorded disc has an inescapable poignancy to it; a time capsule of periods in history where the sun shone before obscurity beckoned.
The Sunday Times, 14 April 2024.

20th century Czech treasures unearthed
Three superb virtuosic 20th-century concertos. The Kovarovic and the Kapralova are unashamedly post-romantic with sweeping melodies while combining great virtuosity. Kapralova died tragically young (aged only 25) and thus the music world was deprived of a hugely significant talent. Her works - about 50 in number - are all impressive, not least this concerto composed when she was just 20 years old. The Borkovec is more "modern" in its idiom with a percussive approach to the piano. Nonetheless, it is melodic, rhythmic and thoroughly enjoyable. The playing of the young Czech pianist is brilliant and thoroughly committed. The Supraphon recording is first class and the disc can be recommended without hesitation.
Reviewed by "Jacobite" for amazon.com on 27 March 27 2024.

Review: “Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos” – Marek Kozak
This album, titled “Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos,” features works by Karel Kovarovic (1862-1920), Vitezslava Kapralova (1915-1940), and Pavel Borkovec (1894-1972). These pieces, brought to life by pianist Marek Kozak and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Robert Jindra, offer a glimpse into a world of musical brilliance that has remained largely unexplored. . . . Kapralova’s Piano Concerto in D Minor, Op. 7, is a forward-looking piece . . . [and] a brilliant showcase of Kapralova’s talent, with its vibrant instrumentation and captivating solo part. . . . The concerto’s modernity and freshness make it stand out in the album, offering a tantalizing taste of a composer whose potential was never fully realized.
From a review by Tal Agam for the Classic Review on 22 March 2024.

Intensity, virtuosity and life-affirming energy from the Pavel Haas Quartet's all-Czech evening.
[Kapralova's] many song, chamber and orchestral works included just the one string quartet. Heavily inspired by Moravian folk music, angular rhythmic energy combines with rich French harmonies, and there are beautifully lyrical moments too, especially for the first violin. Jarusková gave these moments a delicate touch, whilst ensemble in the second movement particularly, with its frequent changes in tempo and rapid pizzicato passages, was effortlessly tight. And after a tender conclusion to the slow movement, the finale danced away, building to a joyful climax, the Haas players proving powerful advocates for this strikingly individual quartet.
From a review by Nick Boston for Bachtrack, 13 February 2024.

Things Lived and Dreamt. Francine Kay, piano. Analekta (2023).
On this record, Kay explores a facet of Czech piano music that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should, such as the album's title track, taken from Josef Suk's gorgeous set of 10 pieces called Životem a snem (Things Lived and Dreamt). Kay also shines the light on Vitezslava Kapralova, the early 20th-century composer who died at 25, just as she was bursting onto the scene. As too often happens, her compelling musical voice faded into obscurity. But the flame has been kept alive by Toronto's Kapralova Society, and it's gratifying to hear Kapralova's music being revived by an accomplished virtuoso performer like Kay, perhaps one of Canada's most undersung classical musicians.
From a review by Paolo Pietropaolo, 20 December 2023, CBC Radio 2.

Ohlednuti za 52. rocnikem festivalu Moravsky podzim: Zaverecny koncert
Druhou polovinu otevrela Suita rustica Vitezslavy Kapralove. Tato kompozice byla nahlych zmen tempa, ktere orchestr, opet s pomoci velmi vyraznych gest dirigenta, skvele zvladl a prokazal naprostou souhranost. I zde vynikl krasny ton – predevsim smyccu. Dynamika orchestru byla, oprolti prvni pulce, na mnohem lepsi urovni. [...] Dramaturgie 52. rocniku mezinarodniho festivalu Moravsky podzim dokazuje, ze i nadale si drzi sve hlavni pilire, na kterych byla kdysi zalozena. Zaroven vsak dava prostor novym hudebne-dramaturgickym tendencim, jez muzeme sledovat i na zahranicnich festivalech, a tedy se snazi jit s dobou.
Petr Meckovsky for Opus musicum 5/2023, 76, 94–97.

Zivotem a snem. The Things Lived and Dreamt. Francine Kay, klavir. Analekta AN 2 9004. Rok vydani 2023. Celkova stopaz 73:57.
V Dubnovych preludiich … slysime tvurkyni, jez se suverenne zmocnila modernich prostredku impresionismu I avantgardy v harmonii, motorickych i nepravidelnych rytmech a zhustene strukture. Na plose ctyr v prumeru jen dve a pul minulty dlouhych skladbiek koncentrovala bohaty, expresivni a presvedcive zvladnuty obsah. Francine Kay dilo interpretuje s velkym porozumenim pro vsechny ty rozmanite a kontrastni odstiny vyrazu, ktere jsou na na tak male plochy hutne soustredeny, aniz by se ji celek jakkoli tristil. Diky tomu muzeme nalezite ocenit velmi pestrou harmonickou paletu dila, bohate rytmicke promeny (zvlaste v prvnim kusu), expresivni dynamicke rozpeti od lyrickeho sepotu po vyostrene vrcholy, gradace kumulujici maximum dramatickeho napeti, lyricky dvojhlas ve tretim kusu, jehoz linie interpretka vyrazne zpevne vyklenula, i tvrdosijnou energii a asentimentalni epxresivitu zaverecneho Viva. . . . Album Things Lived and Dreamt prineslo svetove fonotece vysoce kvalitni a inspirativni predstaveni vice i mene znamych, v kazdem pripade vsak spickovych klavirnich del od autoru nalezicih mezi nejpozoruhodnejsi ceske skladatel.
Jan Charypar for Opus musicum 5/2023, 99–101.

La Vita. Leonie Karatas plays Vítezslava Kapralova. CD recording. EuroArts (2022). Time: 70’
The piano works of Vítezslava Kapralova (1915-1940) offer an ideal introduction into the Czech composer’s musical world. Bold, confident, unpredictable—yet also polished and remarkably mature— Kapralova’s piano pieces are alive with beautiful melodies, timbres and textures, and conceived with great skill and confidence. They include some of Kapralova’s most significant and representative compositions: the Sonata Appassionata, written in 1933 during her student years at the Brno Conservatory, the well-known April Preludes (1937), which by now have been recorded dozens of times, and a set of Variations sur le Carillon (1938), a work that crystallizes Kapralova’s piano-writing style.
Taken as a whole, Kapralova’s piano works fit comfortably onto one CD, and in her debut recording, pianist Leonie Karatas has chosen to record them under the apropos title of “La Vita.” Kapralova’s nickname was ‘Vita’ (her first name appears as such in some of her published works) and of course the word itself translates as ‘life.’ Thus in that title we are also reminded of the brevity of Kapralova’s own existence.
The programming order is not chronologically arranged, and instead opens unusually with the three pieces of Opus 9. This lesser-known trio of works was composed under the guidance of Vítezslav Novák at the Prague Conservatory, where Kapralova had moved from Brno in 1935 at age 20 in order to continue her studies. Each of the three pieces is a free-standing musical work, resulting from different compositional assignments.
The opening “Prelude” is a chiefly post-impressionist work, frequently drifting in the direction of a more modern, dissonant style reminiscent of Prokofiev. The somber opening melody provides a basis for recurring variations, complemented not only by a lyrical secondary theme, but also little cadenza-like digressions of differing character. Karatas handles these disparate elements beautifully in a rich performance that immediately engages the listener with her luminous, elegant tone and impeccably-judged voicing. Her flawless interpretation of this small but wonderful score establishes a high musical standard at the outset of Karatas’ program.
In contrast with the prelude, the “Crab Canon” that follows has an atypical austerity, with the melodic lines performed simultaneously backwards and forwards (as one can observe in the score, but hardly detect during listening). Karatas makes the most of this brief, stark and dissonant work, her playing remaining steady and unperturbed even as the music becomes increasingly chaotic. It’s the only convincing performance of this work that I’ve encountered.
The final piece in Op. 9, “Scherzo Passacaglia,” was actually the first to be composed. Like the crab canon, the work is a modernist take on a Baroque compositional technique, and actually exists in several different versions. Karatas is perfect here in bringing to life the grotesque musical elements, which surprised even Novak, of this virtuosic work (another version of the piece has the title Grotesque Passacaglia). It’s a piece that codifies this recurring and significant aspect of Kapralova’s musical personality. Karatas delivers a knockout performance of this inspired work, with all of the details perfectly judged. Next on the program are the four April Preludes, Kapralova’s best known work for solo piano and an excellent representative of her mature style. They were written for Czech pianist Rudolf Firkušný, and partially inspired by his interpretation of Martinu’s Second Piano Concerto. Of the many recordings of this work, Karatas’ is among the best. Although there are some issues with the published score, which contains several notational errors, Karatas navigates these well. Yet her performance contains odd departures from the score, for example in the rhythms at the end of both the first and second preludes, which are altered, possibly for dramatic effect. In the second prelude, the specified Andante tempo comes across more as an Adagio in Karatas’ unusually slow rendition, stretching the music at times uncomfortably and requiring patience to engage with the musical line. Fortunately, the tempi in the remaining preludes seem perfectly judged. The polka-like finale inspires a particularly strong reading from Karatas—a definitive performance that brings out the full character of the music, and concludes Kapralova’s most popular piano work on a note of perfection.
After a charming rendition of the brief Little Song, Karatas proves equally persuasive in Kapralova’s early but remarkably effective Five Piano Compositions. All are played exquisitely, but the fourth movement Tempo di menuetto stands out as especially superb. It’s a memorable little gem and Karatas gives a flawless and moving performance. Here, as elsewhere on the program, one senses a true bond between the composer and the artist, as Karatas comes fully prepared and engaged with the music she is playing, bringing to life Kapralova’s musical personality, even in her earliest compositional efforts. The musical depth of the final funeral march movement, for example, is astonishing, and Karatas’ slow tempo here contributes to the dark mood of this emotionally mature, sorrowful work.
After the five piano compositions, the program fast-forwards to two of Kapralova’s final piano works, the Dance from 1940, completed and first recorded by pianist Giorgio Koukl, and the 1938 set of Variations sur le carillon de l’église St.-Etienne-du-Mont. Koukl performed a wonderful service by completing and recording the unfinished Dance, but it is also valuable to have Karatas’ excellent rendition of this polka-like piece, which will only encourage other artists to take up this unknown score. The Dance’s folk stylization shows an unmistakable kinship with Martinu who composed works of similar character (see his 3 Czech Dances for solo piano from 1927, for example). It turns out that Karatas’ performance of this delightful work is more smiling and nuanced compared with Koukl’s, offering a greater variety of articulations and tone colors, along with a much better sound quality.
The 1938 set of variations that follows isn’t as well-known as the April Preludes, but certainly deserves to be. This is a comparatively more difficult piece to interpret, and the short length and small number of variations results in a work that is highly concentrated, yet constantly changing and musically diverse. The theme itself must be among the shortest in the history of musical variations—only eight notes long, it is based on a church carillon tune that Kapralova could apparently hear chiming from her flat in Paris. Martinu considered the work a masterpiece and wrote an affectionate “review” of the piece in a letter to Kapralova. This score is more elusive than other piano works by Kapralova, as one discovers when studying the music or listening to the available recordings. From the most basic level of tempo choice to minute details of voicing and pedaling, interpreters have sought strikingly different solutions. Karatas delivers a strong performance that stands out among the alternatives for the same reasons as do the rest of her recordings on this disc: beauty of tone, imaginative voicing, and fully realized musical characterizations. I did find myself not fully convinced by the tempo choices early on, with the second and third variations seeming a bit rushed, and wished for more generous pedaling in the first variation with its resonant, bell-like sounds and strikingly coloristic dissonance. Nonetheless, this is undoubtedly a praiseworthy interpretation. Variation 4 (Quasi etude, vivo) is played with a breathtaking precision, and the fifth variation Choral is perfectly realized. The final variation has echoes of the last April Prelude, in that both are grotesquely stylized polkas with similar rhythmic motifs. Here Karatas projects the music with an appropriate exuberance and flair. In the climactic coda that follows, the carillon theme is heard in thunderous fff octaves, with Martinu musing in his letter to Kapralova that is sounds as if the piano is being sacrificed. As it turns out, the recording engineers couldn’t quite handle the decibel levels during this passage, which unfortunately sounds congested.
Karatas saves her performance of the Sonata Appassionata for the end of the program, which proves to be another wise choice. This two-movement work is Kapralova’s only large canvas for piano solo, and it is an extraordinarily effective one, despite being an early work written during her student years at the Brno Conservatory. The Sonata is a summary of the romantic and impressionistic styles that Kapralova was exposed to and assimilated, coupled with a more forward-looking modernism that would become increasingly prominent in future compositions.
Karatas plays this ambitious work of youthful genius with a great sense of authority and commitment, bringing out all the winning aspects of this score and delivering a thrilling musical experience. The dramatic first movement is delivered with perfection and makes me long to hear Karatas interpreting Rachmaninoff and Chopin. A great performance such as this reveals the music in the best possible light and reveals the extent of Kapralova’s compositional mastery even at this early stage of her career.
The second movement is a set of variations, based on one of Kapralova’s most beguiling themes, and it is instructive to compare Kapralova’s stylistic approach to writing variations in this piece with that of the Carillon variations written five years later. Both works contain six variations, but those in the Sonata are longer in length and more romantically conceived. The final variation, beginning as a fugato and unfolding developmentally, is the longest of all, taking up as much time as the earlier variations combined. In this final variation the music suddenly turns more modernistic, adopting a grotesque character that foreshadows what we hear in subsequent works.
Karatas takes the opening theme at a leisurely tempo, allowing the music to unfold gradually and for details to emerge that illuminate the beauty and intricacy of Kapralova’s piano writing. As the difficulties increase, Karatas handles the diverse musical demands of this sprawling movement with ease. This is a triumphant performance of an ambitious, impactful work that should be heard in recitals more often.
The program ends with a beautiful little coda—the two ‘bouquets’ from 1935. These intimate miniatures are played superbly, and conclude Karatas’ recital in a mode of reflection.
The success of this recording hinges on the fact that Karatas is obviously fully immersed in Kapralova’s music, and possesses the artistry, imagination and vision to truly bring it to life. We hear an accomplished performer bringing new insights into the interpretation of Kapralova’s piano music, and in this way Karatas performs a great service to Kapralova’s legacy. The beauty of these scores is that every thoughtful performance brings new revelations, and new ways of advocating for Kapralova’s music. As Karatas concludes in her liner notes, “What her music brings about in the listener is nothing less than astonishment and speechlessness at the thunderbolt her music strikes in you.” One could say the same about the performances on this exceptional disc.
A review by Erik Entwistle for Czech Music Quarterly 3/2023.