sibelius string quartets gramophone review

To date, Supraphon has received the prize for 18 recordings, most recently in 2006, for the 42-disc set within the Karel Ančerl Gold Edition. Owing to the high standard of the Academy’s work, the Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles Cros is the most prestigious classical music award there is. L’Académie Charles Cros was founded in 1947 by a group of musicologists, critics and recording industry professionals in honour of Charles Cros (1842–1888), a French poet and pioneer in the field of sound recording technology. The Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles Cros has been annually awarded since 1948 for recordings that are truly outstanding, in both artistic and technical terms. In March 1959, Supraphon received its first prestigious Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles Cros, for a recording of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, as performed by the National Theatre Orchestra in Prague, conducted by Václav Neumann, and featuring the soloists Rudolf Asmus, Květa Belanová, Antonín Votava, Libuše Domanínská, Helena Tattermuschová, and other singers. During his time in the USA, Jirák composed 34 accomplished pieces, including two symphonies, a requiem, chamber and orchestral works, as well as songs set to Czech poetry. On the other hand, the Czechoslovak government hated and renounced him up until 1968, which saw a change in the political climate. An outstanding teacher, a specialist in all styles of music, and a seasoned conductor, he would go on to train dozens of renowned artists during his tenure in America. In 1947, he was invited to Chicago to serve as an instructor at the university summer music classes, and as his work met with a positive response, he stayed on in the USA. A conductor, educator and composer, Jirák was at the helm of the radio orchestra until 1945, yet he had to withdraw from his post in the wake of his being accused of asocial and “non-Czech” behaviour. In October 1943, a recording of Bedřich Smetana’s My Country was made by the National Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Karel Boleslav Jirák, at the Domovina studio in Prague for the Esta label. Nevertheless, the Czech Philharmonic also had to deliver concerts for the Nazi regime: in March 1942, the orchestra played My Country for the Czech National Socialist Union Vlajka (Flag), and in April 1944 they appeared within the gala marking the “55th Birthday of the Führer Adolf Hitler”.

His venture passed through and, following the performances’ great success in the Reich, Smetana’s cycle could be played in its entirety in the Protectorate too. On 11 and 12 February 1941 – upon Joseph Goebbels’s instruction – the Czech Philharmonic gave concerts in Berlin and Dresden, and Talich duly included the entire My Country in the programme. Owing to the national manifestations in which its concerts in Prague and dozens of other cities throughout the Protectorate resulted, the occupation authorities soon banned the performance of the piece as a whole (with the sections Tábor and Blaník not being allowed at all). Smetana’s My Country has never been played as frequently as during the time of the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. In 2012, the CD containing the recordings received the Gramophone Award, which was taken over in London by Václav Talich’s granddaughters and Supraphon representatives. Supraphon only released the unique recordings some 72 years later, in 2011, when they were discovered at the Norwegian Radio archive. The recording of this concert, and that of Antoník Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, which was held at the National Theatre eight days later, has been preserved owing to the performances’ having been directly broadcast in several European cities. The emotional charge of the moment gave rise to his evidently best recording of My Country, capturing the concert audience’s long ovations, followed by a spontaneously singing of the Czech national anthem.

The performance of Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic poem My Country at the National Theatre in Prague during the time of Nazi Germany’s Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a significant demonstration of patriotism on the part of the conductor Václav Talich and the Czech Philharmonic alike.

Sibelius string quartets gramophone review