SACD, Janáček (composer)
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Special offer. Janáček: Katya Kabanova
RecommendedAmanda Majeski (Katya), Katarina Dalayman (Kabanicha), Simon O'Neill (Boris), Andrew Staples (Tichon), Magdalena Kozená (Varvara), Ladislav Elgr (Kudrjas), Pavlo Hunka (Dikój)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
Rattle and his recording engineers have produced a Katya that sound s magnificent both in its attention to musical detail and in those sudden orchestral climaxes that seem to sweep nature itself... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 23rd February 2024
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Gramophone Magazine, March 2024, Recording of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2024 Shortlist, Shortlisted - Opera
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalists 2024
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International Classical Music Awards, 2025, Nominated - Opera
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2024
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Special offer. Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta
RecommendedLucy Crowe (Vixen), Gerald Finley (Forester), Sophia Burgos (Fox), Jan Martiník (Badger/Parson), Peter Hoare (Mosquito/Rooster/Schoolmaster), Hanno Müller-Brachmann (Harašta)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
If this Vixen is good, the Sinfonietta is outstanding – arguably the best on disc, though you need to experience the work in a concert hall with the nine trumpets blazing. They’re supremely... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 4th September 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2020, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
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Grammy Awards, 64th Awards (2022), Nominee - Best Opera Recording
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Special offer. Janáček: Jenůfa
RecommendedAgneta Eichenholz (Jenůfa), Katarina Karnéus (Kostelnička), Aleš Briscein (Laca), Nicky Spence (Števa), Jan Martiník (Starek, the Foreman/Mayor), Carole Wilson (Grandmother Buryjovka)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Simon Rattle
It’s the conflicted characters that we ‘hear’ in this Jenůfa: Laca who cuts the eponymous heroine’s face and the Deaconess Kostelnička who murders her stepdaughter’s illegitimate infant to protect... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 2nd May 2025
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International Classical Music Awards, 2026, Nominated - Opera
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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Janáček: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1
RecommendedJean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
we have a fine interpreter of Janáček and a distinguished orchestra...Orchestral ensemble is good though not always the intonation. still, the remaining movements are more compelling, with vivid... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th September 2014
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
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Special offer. Soirée
RecommendedMagdalena Kožená (mezzo), Sir Simon Rattle (piano), Rahel Rilling (violin), Wolfram Brandl (violin), Yulia Deyneka (viola), David Adorjan (cello), Andrew Marriner (clarinet)
There is some lovely singing from Kožená, whose fawn-tinted mezzo retains its attractive quality from her earliest discs…She sings the two Brahms collections well, especially the Ophelia Songs,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 13th September 2019
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Assorted Program
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Janáček: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2
RecommendedMelina Mandozzi (violin), Susanna Andersson (soprano), James Ehnes (violin)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Leader Milina Mandozzi does well to show the way through this mysterious, powerful work [The Fiddler's Child]...These must be difficult works to prepare and indeed to record; both playing and... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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Janacek: Orchestral Works Vol. 3
Sara Jakubiak (soprano), Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano), Stuart Skelton (tenor), Gábor Bretz (bass) & Thomas Trotter (organ), David Stewart (violin), Karstein Askeland (organ), Johannes Wik (harp)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Choir & Choir of Collegiûm Mûsicûm,...
Gardner steers the clash of brass, strings, chorus and soloists with confidence, the instrumental outer movements ablaze with excitement, the whole well balanced but still dangerous and invigorating. —
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These 12 arrangements (by the ensemble) are of stylistic and historical diversity...Muhly’s Look for Me invests a US folk song with dark jazz; Janacek’s Zdenka Variations is an appealing discovery. —
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His aim for lightness, transparency and directness yields poetic results…the rounded edges and polished passagework characterising Zhang’s Janácek are pianistically impressive, yet he glides... —
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their success at dramatising the storieswithout-words of both quartets is much aided by exceptionally vivid studio engineering, achieved by Thore Brinkmann at Potton Hall. —
