Kinsky Trio Prague, Prazak Quartet – Debussy: Chamber Music (2013) MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Kinsky Trio Prague, Prazak Quartet – Debussy: Chamber Music (2013)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 62:49 min | Front/Rear Covers | 3,64 GB
or DSD64 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,44 GB
or FLAC 2.0 (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,26 GB
DSD Recording | Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Praga Digitals # PRD/DSD 250302

Better known for his works for orchestra or solo piano, Claude Debussy also composed a wealth of beautiful chamber music. This disc featuring the Pražák Quartet and the Kinsky Trio Prague (and invited guests) offers a selection of six works, ranging from the Piano Trio No.1 of 1879, via a fascinating chamber arrangement of the always popular ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un Faune’ to his last work, the Cello Sonata written in 1915. This audiophile quality multi-channel SACD presents these works a unique coupling, not featured on any other disc.

(more…)

Read more

Raphaël Sévère, Prazak Quartet – Brahms & Hindemith: Clarinet Quintets (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Raphaël Sévère, Prazak Quartet – Brahms & Hindemith: Clarinet Quintets (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:33 minutes | 1001 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Mirare

Only 30 years separate the clarinet quintets of Brahms and Hindemith; yet these are not just two artists’ temperaments, not two different concepts, not two distinct aesthetics. What separates them is the world of harmony and that of established disorder.

After winning the Tokyo competition at the age of 12 and gaining a nomination as “Solo instrumental discovery” at the Victoires de la Musique, aged 15, Raphael Sévère went on to win the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York in November 2013, where he was awarded First Prize and eight special prizes. Discovered by the general public at the age of 12 on the radio (France Musique), Raphaël Sévère currently ranks as one of the most brilliant representatives of the French school of clarinet.

For more than 30 years, the Prazak Quartet has been at home on music stages worldwide. They are regular guests in the major European musical capitals and have been invited to participate at numerous international festivals, where they have collaborated with such artists as Menahem Pressler, Jon Nakamatsu, Cynthia Phelps, Roberto Diaz, Josef Suk and Sharon Kam. In 2015, Jana Vonášková joined the group as first violinist, succeeding Pavel Hula. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, and was a member of the Smetana Trio for nine years.

(more…)

Read more

Prazak Quartet, Zemlinsky Quartet – Bohuslav Martinů: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 & 6 (2009/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet, Zemlinsky Quartet – Bohuslav Martinů: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 & 6 (2009/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:24 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

The composer of Julietta left seven string quartets that do not, by any means, form a cycle but rather a succession of testimonies stretching from 1920 to 1947. This second volume – the first is on PRAGA 250 205 – juxtaposed the French Quartet (No. 1), a lengthy and luxurious, homage to Debussy and Dvorak, the shortest (No.3) ‘pocket’ Quartet and the Sixth written in the post-war utopia, a fantastic counterpoint of madrigals for strings with astonishing polymelodicism, introduction da camera to last Symphony No. 6 (Symphonic Fantasies, 1951-53), with his earnest, struggling character and high symphonic spirit.

(more…)

Read more

Prazak Quartet – Ludwig van Beethoven: The Three String Quartets, Op. 59 (2000/2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet – Ludwig van Beethoven: The Three String Quartets, Op. 59 (2000/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:46:19 minutes | 1,79 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

“The Pražàk makes the first chord of Op. 59 No. 3 sound like one of Tchaikovsky’s melancholic musings, then perfectly conveys the music’s spontaneous eruption of joy. In the following Andante, the plucked cello line is perfectly balanced with the other instruments, avoiding the “guitar” effect of the Alban Berg’s performance. The Menuetto flows gracefully, leading into a meticulous and brilliantly played Allegro finale. The performers are graced with a warm, spacious recording that places them ideally within the hall and in proximity to the microphones, allowing their full dynamic and tonal range to be faithfully reproduced. Get this marvelous album and you’ll find yourself eagerly anticipating the Pražàk’s venture into the late quartets.”

(more…)

Read more

Prazak Quartet – Haydn: The Last Three String Quartets (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet – Haydn: The Last Three String Quartets (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:55 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PRAGA DIGITALS CD

In 1799, Haydn undertook the composition of a six quartet series dedicated to the Prince Lobkowitz. The two quartets Op.77 Nos.1 and 2 were the first outcome of this project. Kept busy by the composition of his Seasons and the Harmoniemesse, Haydn couldn’t complete the entire series before his passing, but he left two fragments of a third quartet, which make up the Op.103. These three last quartets, bold and full of wit, are the final goodbye of an old master. Underscoring the hand over between two generations of composers, this program pays homage to the Prazak Quartet, which continues the evolution it began in 2015, and opens a new chapter in its history.

(more…)

Read more

Prazak Quartet – Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2, From my Homeland (1999-03-01) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet - Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2, From my Homeland (1999-03-01) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Prazak Quartet – Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2, From my Homeland (1999-03-01)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:24 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

Classical in the respect for established forms, romantic in its clearly autobiographical nature, the chamber music by Bedřich Smetana is not plentiful, especially when compared to the output of his younger, immediate successor, Antonín Dvořàk. His two quartets form essentially chapters of a diary written when the overtaxed composer was suffering from increasingly severe deafness. However Smetana compels recognition as a major composer in a genre theoretically not overly propitious to personal outpourings; he showed innate taste for clarity, concision, transparency of language maintaining that rare duality between learned, refined writing and a profoundly human message.

Awards: Choc by Le Monde de la Musique, Recommended by Répertoire, Recommended by Classica, 5 by Diapason, BBC Music Magazine
(more…)

Read more

Prazak Quartet – Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 3, Scherzo, Presto, Chamber Symphony (2010/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet – Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 3, Scherzo, Presto, Chamber Symphony (2010/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:26 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

The fifth volume devoted to Schönberg’s chamber music. On display here is writing that, after being based on traditional models (youthful Scherzo and Presto), evolves towards a melodic density and clarity of counterpoint making the Chamber Symphony, Op.9 (1906) accomplished and radiant as much in its chamber transcriptions as in the versions for full orchestra. The Quartet No.3 (1926) achieves a masterful balance between rhythm and harmony, melody and counterpoint, horizontality and verticality. All these processes blend in an original art of the continuous variation. By blurring the formal aspect, the PRAŽÁKs make him the heir of other Viennese: Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms… and Beethoven.

(more…)

Read more

Prazak Quartet, François Dumont – Franck: Piano Quintet – Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Prazak Quartet, François Dumont – Franck: Piano Quintet – Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:04 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

The first major French piano quintet, César Franck’s Piano Quintet was completed in 1879 and premiered in January 1880. With an intensity and lyricism unheard of in the French chamber music repertoire at the time, it marked both the renewal of the latter, opening the way for Chausson, D’Indy and Fauré, and that of Franck’s style. The Pražák Quartet and François Dumont come together to celebrate the composer’s 200th birthday with this masterpiece.

(more…)

Read more

Kinsky Trio Prague, Prazak Quartet – Alexander Borodin – Chamber Music Vol. III (2011) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Kinsky Trio Prague, Prazak Quartet – Alexander Borodin – Chamber Music Vol. III (2011)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,19 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 933 MB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Praga Digitals # PRD/DSD 250 288 | Country/Year: Czech Rep. 2011 | 3% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

This release is the third and presumably final installment in Praga’s survey of Borodin’s chamber music. I gave a warm welcome to Volume 2 of the series in Fanfare 35:3. That earlier release included a work from the composer’s maturity, the Read more Serenata , dating from 1886, the present disc is devoted exclusively to early works, from the period 1850–62, which are very short, unfinished, or both. I hear little in them that is specifically Russian in character or suggestive of the mature Borodin’s distinctive voice. They are instead written in a more international idiom, which is not unexpected, given that they were produced prior to Borodin’s association with the Mighty Handful and at a time when he was experiencing most of all the influence of such composers as Mendelssohn and Schumann. The fragmentary nature of these pieces is explained by the fact that they were written for private performance rather than public dissemination and were not published until long after the composer’s death. Nonetheless, these early pieces are surprisingly accomplished and enjoyable, if lacking the melodic inspiration we would expect from the composer of Prince Igor , the symphonies, and the Second String Quartet.

(more…)

Read more
%d bloggers like this: