Janáček L.: Suity z oper - CD

This recording presents orchestral suites from three pivotal operas by Leoš Janáček: Jenůfa, arranged by Tomáš Ille, Káťa Kabanová, arranged by Jaroslav Smolka, and Osud, arranged by František Jílek. Janáček is one of the most remarkable composers of the 20th century, yet his symphonic output is relatively small, leading conductors including Václav Talich, František Jílek and Charles Mackerras to create suites from his operas and enrich the symphonic repertoire. In Jenůfa, Janáček was the first composer to set a prose text to music. The opera emerged from the painful loss of his two beloved children and the crisis caused when Prague’s National Theatre rejected it in 1903 as artistically flawed. In Osud, he experimented with the possibilities of musical drama; the opera premiered only 30 years after his death. Káťa Kabanová ranks among his greatest works and is one of the finest lyrical operas of the 20th century. The Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra performs under Tomáš Netopil, whose two previous Janáček projects with the ensemble received Gramophone Editor’s Choice recognition.