Supraphon a.s.

Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006), one of the most distinguished figures of 20th-century Czech music, wrote some eighty opuses, predominantly instrumental pieces, including for his wife, the world-renowned harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. His symponic works were performed by such high-profile musicians as Rojdestvenski, Sawallisch, Jiří Kout, Mácal, Ančerl, Václav Neumann, Manuel Rosenthal and Herbert Blomstedt, to name just a few. As the composer himself put it, his aim was to create music rooted in his country, music for educated listeners. Although he also drew inspiration from 20th-century classics, Kalabis arrived at a synthetic style of his own, an alternative to the rational compositional techniques – a Neo-Romantic alternative, akin to Neo-Classicism. Besides the first ever album of Kalabis's complete piano oeuvre (scheduled to be released in 2019), Ivo Kahánek and other leading Czech instrumentalists have recorded the composer's three sonatas for two instruments – cello, clarinet, violin. The one for cello reflects the dramatic events in Czechoslovakia between June and September 1968: the months of euphoria of the Prague Spring, followed by disillusionment and resignation in the wake of the Warsaw Pact's invasion, which for two decades to come would numb all hopes of freedom. The clarinet sonata (1969) too clearly refers to the time of its coming into being: drama, grief and sorrow, escalated into harrowing helplessness. The elliptical and coherent violin sonata (1982) places emphasis on the instrument's typical ethos – melodiousness, bright sound and soulfulness. After three releases featuring Kalabis's symphonies and concertos on the label Supraphon, the present recording affords yet another insight into the composer's musical universe. And the turbulent events of the recent past, up to Kalabi’s death in 2006, seems clearly reflected in his chamber music. © Supraphon

Schubert's music is as naive as the poet's expressions; the emotions contained in the poems are as deeply reflected in his own feelings, and these are so brought out in sound that no-one can sing or hear them without being touched to the heart." Thus read a Viennese critic's review of Winterreise, a true masterpiece published in the final year of the composer's life. Enthralled by the verse of Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827), Schubert slightly changed the order of the poems so as to make a story - of a wanderer, a homeless man, unrequited in love and disappointed by the whole word. A tale that has always prompted questions as to what degree it reflects the personal experiences of the two artists, the poet and the musician, coevals whose lives ended too soon. The motif of a vagrant, an outcast loner, was characteristic of 19th-century Romanticism, yet it seems to resonate with the feeling of solitude of those living today. Possessing a robust, colourful voice, the bass Jan Martiník inheres an immense sensitivity for expressing the intimacy of Schubert's songs. He has proved his calibre by having attained success at international competitions (a finalist of Plácido Domingo's Operalia in 2007, the winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in the Song category in 2009), as well as by having performed to great acclaim on major opera stages (a soloist of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and other prestigious engagements). Following his Supraphon debut (Martinů - The Epic of Gilgamesh / Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Manfred Honeck), Martiník has recorded Winterreise, splendidly accompanied on the piano by David Mareček. The virtue of their joint music journey lies in modest simplicity and profound intimacy. © Supraphon