Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Zdenek Kosler – Smetana: The Bartered Bride (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Zdenek Kosler – Smetana: The Bartered Bride (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:16:56 minutes | 1,93 GB | Genre: Classical, Opera
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Supraphon

For Czech audiences, arias from The Bartered Bride, this jewel of Czech classical opera production from the pen of Bedřich Smetana, represent truly popular, indeed timeless tunes. Supraphon is now launching this famous comic opera back onto the market, in a version featuring star performances of international stars Gabriela Beňačková as Mařenka, Peter Dvorský as Jeník, and Richard Novák as Kecal. Playing on an equally brilliant form here was the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zdeněk Košler, backed by the vocal forces of the Prague Philharmonic Choir.

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Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – R. Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra – Salome’s Dance (1988/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Košler – R. Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra – Salome’s Dance (1988/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 55:13 minutes | 508 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2xHD

Czech conductor Zdeněk Košler leads the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra on this 1989 album featuring Richard Strauss’s iconic Also sprach Zarathustra, one of the most recognizable pieces in all of classical music. Strauss makes use of an unusually large orchestra, deployed in the most varied way, while there is a tonal ambiguity that remains to the final bars.

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Zdenek Kosler, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Oistrakh Trio, Smetana Quartet – Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9, Piano Trio No. 2 & String Quartet No. 3 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Zdenek Kosler, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Oistrakh Trio, Smetana Quartet - Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9, Piano Trio No. 2 & String Quartet No. 3 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

Zdenek Kosler, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Oistrakh Trio, Smetana Quartet – Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9, Piano Trio No. 2 & String Quartet No. 3 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:35 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Praga Digitals

In the spring of 1945, the intelligentsia in Russia and the rest of the world expected Shostakovich’s Symphony No.9 to glorify Stalin’s victory with a hymn worthy of Beethoven’s. What emerged was a symphonic scherzo, more Rossini-like than majestic, except for the solemn brass call of the largo. Performed here by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led by Zdenek Koler, the symphony is paired with the Piano Trio in memory of his the composer’s friend Ivan Sollertinsky, who had lost favor with the Kremlin, and the String Quartet No.3, his last diatribe against vice and violence.
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