Karel Ancerl Gold Edition Vol.43 (4 CDs)

With works by: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) , Ilja Hurnik (1922-2013) , Vaclav Dobias (1905-1978) , Jan Kapr (1914-1988) , Julius Kalas (1902-1967) , Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006) , Jan Seidel (1910-1998) , Ivan Jirko (1926-1978) , Petr Eben (1929-2007) , Pavel Borkovec (1894-1972)

Contributors: Jan Soumar, Vaclav Snitil, Josef Shejbal, Viktoria Svihlikova, Frantisek Rauch, Vlach Quartet, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ancerl

4 CDs

CD (Compact Disc)

Conventional CD, playable with all CD players and computer drives, but also with most SACD or multiplayers.

Item will be re-manufactured.
Expected availability end of September 2025

Current price: EUR 18.99

Shipping

Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
+Hurnik: 4 Jahreszeiten; Ondras
+Dobias: Build up your Country to Reinforce the Peace
+Kapr: In the Soviet Country
+Kalas: The Nightingale and the Rose
+Kalabis: Violinkonzert Nr. 1
+Seidel: Oboenkonzert Nr. 2
+Jirko: Klavierkonzert Nr. 3
+Eben: Klavierkonzert
+Borkovec: Symphonie Nr. 2

Artists:: Jan Soumar, Vaclav Snitil, Josef Shejbal, Viktoria Svihlikova, Frantisek Rauch, Vlach Quartet, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ancerl
Label:: Supraphon
Year of recording ca.:: 1951-63
Item number:: 7129030
UPC/EAN:: 0099925394424
Release date:: 25.4.2008

Product Information:

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the conductor Karel Ancerl the "final word" remains to be said within the Ancerl Gold Edition. The four CDs sum up the work of Ancerl's contemporaries, with the exception of Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", that of Czech composers. The set bears unprecedented witness to the 1950s and 1960s, the period when the Communist powers that be decided on taste and composition trends, and when the criterion for acceptance or rejection of a work was its "mass appeal" and the degree of consonance with the "Socialist Realism" style. The excellent Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with its internationally sought-after conductor is here involuntarily in the services of propagandist kitsch (Dobias's cantata "Build Up Your Country to Reinforce the Peace", Kapr's panegyric cantata "In the Soviet Country"). However, concurrently originating were also a number of recordings of remarkable works by composers who were able to withstand ideological pressures. Alongside folklore inspiration (evident, for example, in the ballet "Ondras" by Ilja Hurnik and Seidl's oboe concerto), neoclassical influences and "genetic" linkages to the work of Janacek, Dvorak, Suk and Novak were still palpable, while also present was the seeking of a singular and contemporary musical language (Eben, Borkovec, Kalabis). Paradoxically, today's young composers could envy their counterparts of half a century ago - many a time their compositions experienced paramount concert performance and recording within a short time from the last note drying out in the score.

The 4 CD set mapping the post-February 1948 Czech compositional scene rounds off the Ancerl Gold Edition - a testimony of an epoch of our modern musical history

Disk 1 von 4 (CD)

1 Benjamin Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra op. 34

Vier Jahreszeiten (Suite für Kammerorchester) (1952)

2 Floating ice (Frühling) -
3 Cuckoo -
4 Moon above a Pond -
5 Feast
6 Harvest (Sommer) -
7 Sultriness -
8 Harvest-home polka -
9 High clouds
10 Indian summer (Herbst) -
11 Swallows flying away -
12 Village fair -
13 Around the fire -
14 A badger goes to rest -
15 Rain
16 A christmas song (Winter) -
17 Snowflakes -
18 A hungry birdie -
19 Sleigh ride

Ondrás (Ballettmusik) (1951)

20 1. Dance with whoops
21 2. Meiden's wedding dance
22 3. Brigand dance
23 4. Oracular dance
24 5. Dance at the Sviadnov Pub
25 Ondrás's death

Disk 2 von 4 (CD)

1 Václav Dobiás: Build up your country to reinforce the peace (Kantate nach Frantisek Halas) (1947)
2 Jan Kapr: In the soviet country (Kantate nach Vítezslav Nezval)
3 Julius Kalas: The nightingale and the rose op. 81 (nach Oscar Wilde)