In the past, the viola was often considered the poor relation to the violin or cello, for which composers wrote solo pieces, notably Bach with his solo partitas. Only the 20th century, to a certain extent, redeemed the debt to this splendid instrument. This CD featuring Jitka Hosprová presents the best compositions written for solo viola in the 20th century in the homeland of Dvořák, Smetana and Janáček. We would be hard-pressed indeed to find another violist whose repertoire is so dominated by 20th- and 21st-century works.

This CD, the latest title within the acclaimed Russian Masters series, presents three towering Russian musicians. At a superb 1960 Prague Spring festival concert, Kogan, Barshai and Rostropovich performed together three of Beethoven’s four string trios. These pieces are seldom played in combination since they require from the musicians a rare combination of virtuosity and humility, as well as mutual respect between the chamber players.

The gracious young soprano Martina Janková has established a firm position amidst fierce international competition. Since 1998 she has been an Oper Zürich soloist and has featured in productions by conductors of such renown as Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Fedoseyev, Herreweghe, Rattle, etc. With Sir John Eliot Gardiner, she has recorded, among other things, Bach’s cantatas. Yet Martina Janková keeps returning to the emotionally rich realm of the song.

Václav Hudeček ranks among the most gifted violinists, not only on a Czech but also an international scale, to have graced a 20th-century concert stage. Following his debut in London (at the tender age of 15!) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, he appeared at the most prestigious concert venues (Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, Osaka Festival Hall, Sydney Opera) with worldrenowned orchestras (Berliner Philharmoniker, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, NHK Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, etc.). David Oistrakh, who immediately recognised Hudeček’s exceptional talent, was his teacher and mentor, and on several albums accompanied him as a conductor too.

Antonín Reichenauer (c. 1694–1730) – a few years ago a name virtually unknown, today mentioned by Baroque music lovers in the same breath as the greatest Czech Baroque masters, not to mention Antonio Vivaldi himself. Reichenauer assumed after Johann Friedrich Fasch the post of court composer in the service of Count Morzin, whose chapel Vivaldi called a “virtuosissima orchestra” and for which he wrote a number of concertos.

The Virgin Mary surrounded by Saint Catherine, Saint Dorothy, Saint Barbara and Saint Margaret. This frequent medieval representation bears witness to the great reverence paid to the Virgin Mary and her companions which strongly influenced the mysticism of the late Middle Ages. The repertoire of the recording recalls the thorny lives of these female martyrs and the veneration of them, as preserved in the 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts of the Benedictine Convent of St George at Prague Castle. The choral repertoire is supplemented by polyphonic Marian motets from the most significant polyphony manuscripts of this period..

Jean Marie Leclair's music has always been of great enjoyment to me (I especially love his violin concertos.) These sonatas for transverse flute and basso continuo consisting of viola de gamba and harpsichord are so very appealing. I do love the sound of the Baroque flute; it is so very mellow and soothing. The sonatas on this recording consists of four movements (there is one that is three movements) which contain two fast and two slow movements each. They are wonderful especially the ones in minor keys. I can visualize people sitting around a well appointed "Drawing room" in powdered wigs listening to this music.

Joan Osborne set the world on fire for a few minutes back in the '90s with her reading of Eric Bazilian's "One of Us," a single that dominated the charts for the better part of a year and continues to get radio play. The album, Relish, sold into the millions, making everybody and her brother (especially the folks at her label Interscope) think she was going to be a superstar. It didn't work out that way. Despite being one of the greatest R&B and soul singers around (before she played in the big leagues she issued a few independent recordings on her own Womanly Hips label that offer stellar proof of this), she got her rep as a pop singer; worse yet, as part of the '90s wave of female acts who dominated the charts for a little while and was a part of the first Lilith Fair, while singing pop songs at half power no less.

The Advent and Christmas songs from the workshop of Zuzana Lapčíková reflect perhaps all her musical positions known to date (as a singer and cimbalom player with a penchant for seeking inspiration in jazz and across genres). Yet the Christmas high-spiritedness is frequently supplemented by intimate chamber mood, humility and solemnity. Besides several sprightly “catchy” pieces, she often soberly makes use of the superlative co-players of her jazz quintet for tranquil duets. Her singing is the golden thread accompanying us throughout – a singing sharing pure joy, elsewhere humility before the Creator and evoking the silent tenderness with which the Virgin Mary looks upon the Infant.

New recordings from Supraphon’s Gramophone Editor’s Choice winning series “Music From 18th Century Prague” Unlike the copiously preserved sacred music, instrumental works by Czech composers in the Prague of the first third of the 18th century are as scarce as hen’s teeth. The twenty or so instrumental pieces by Antonín Reichenauer are among the most significant. Reichenauer was a musician in Count Morzin’s chapel, in which he assumed the role of in-house composer after Johann Friedrich Fasch. The ensemble’s superb quality is documented by the Count’s regular contacts with Antonio Vivaldi, whom he engaged as his “maestro di musica in Italia”.

The great B minor Cello Concerto of Antonín Dvorák remains, more than 115 years after its composition, one of the cornerstones of the cello repertoire and by far the most successful of all Dvorák's concertos. Much less known is the Cello Concerto in A major – Dvorák's first – that was written some 30 years prior to the B minor. The A major was composed as a gift, one Dvorák did not have opportunity to rework as he aged or to orchestrate himself. Lost and forgotten until the 1920s, the First Concerto has been subjected to many different orchestrations, cuts, and versions.

Ever newer chapters from the history of the bountiful musical life of Baroque Prague are still being discovered today. Until recently, František Jiránek, a composer and violinist of the Prague-based Count Morzin's chapel, had only been known to a select few. Now, for the first time, all lovers of old music are afforded the opportunity to listen to an exquisite collection of his virtuoso concertos. At first hearing, we can recognise inspiration by Vivaldi (combined with distinct elements of Czech musicality) - after all, Jiránek was sent by his employer to study in Venice, where most likely Antonio Vivaldi himself, at the time Morzin's "maestro di musica in Italia", was his teacher.

Josef Suk began writing the funeral symphony Asrael to commemorate his teacher and father-in-law Antonín Dvořák. During the course of work, however, Fate dealt him another crushing blow: Asrael, the Angel of Death, took away Suk’s wife and Dvořák’s daughter, Otilie. The symphony is a story of a suffering whose strength seems simply unendurable, yet also a story of its overcoming, seeking solace and hope.

All of Sviatoslav Richter’s concert appearances in Prague, from his 1950 Prague Spring performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, to his 1993 performance of the Grieg concerto, were highlights of Prague’s musical life. Richter, however, enjoyed traveling to small cities, often playing on instruments whose quality would be simply unacceptable for many of today’s musical stars. His concerts were generally completely sold out and offered his listeners an extraordinary musical experience regardless of the venue or quality of the instrument. The ability to surpise his audiences again and again was an inborn part of his personality.

Born in Odessa in 1908, David Oistrakh became one of the greatest violin legends of the 20th century. In 1946 Prague was among the first destinations of his post-war foreign tours. From that time on he would repeatedly return to the city as a violinist and conductor. Owing to his technical mastery and exquisitely warm tone, Oistrakh became an insuperable interpreter of grand Romantic concerti. Serving as a case in point is Brahms’s Concerto in D major, a work of extreme technical difficulty, recorded in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Antonio Pedrotti.