Jan Michiels – Dvorak & Janacek: Slavic Soul (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Jan Michiels - Dvorak & Janacek: Slavic Soul (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz] Download

It was in Prague and Brno, the two largest cities in what is now the Czech Republic, that Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček – the principal representatives of the nineteenth-century Czech national school, along with Bedřich Smetana – launched their respective compositional careers. While Janáček, thirteen years younger than Dvořák, saw the latter as a father figure, the two men shared the same poetic Slavic soul. Indeed, Janáček said of Dvořák: ‘I could exchange his personality for his works; it is as if his melodies came straight from my heart. Nothing can ever break such a bond.’ In his fourth solo recording for Fuga Libera, Jan Michiels places this shared Slavic consciousness and musicality in the perspective of the almost filial relationship between the two composers, for example by interspersing the pieces from two eminently lyrical cycles: Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures op.85 (1889) and Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path (1900-11).

Tracklist:

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85
1 III. In the Old Castle 04:09

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
On an Overgrown Path
2 Vivo 01:38

Antonín Dvořák
Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85
3 VII. Furiant 02:41

Leoš Janáček
On an Overgrown Path
4The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away! 03:27

Antonín Dvořák
Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85
5 VI. Reverie 03:52

Leoš Janáček
1.X.1905
6 I. The Presentiment 05:03
7 II. The Death 06:15

Antonín Dvořák
Dumka-Furiant, Op. 12
8 I. Allegretto moderato (Dumka) 04:31
9 II. Vivace (Furiant) 04:03

Leoš Janáček
On an Overgrown Path
10 Allegro 05:03
11 VII. Good Night! 02:25

Antonín Dvořák
Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85
12 IX. Serenade 04:41

Leoš Janáček
On an Overgrown Path
13 VI. Words Fail! 01:51

Antonín Dvořák
8 Humoresques, Op. 101
14 I. Vivace 02:12
15 VII. Poco lento e grazioso 02:42