Portrait - 2 CD

This two-CD portrait presents a selection of Richard Novák’s Supraphon and radio recordings, featuring arias from operas by Mozart, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Offenbach, Verdi, Wagner and Janáček, as well as songs by Wolf, Schubert, Křička and Dvořák. Novák sings bass, accompanied by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Janáček Opera in Brno, the Prague Chamber Philharmonia and pianist Gerhard Zeller, under conductors including František Jílek, Jan Štych, Miroslav Hoňka, Jaroslav Kyzlink and Tomáš Hanus. A singer who can perform the Forester at almost 85, at the end of The Cunning Little Vixen, so brilliantly that listeners are left speechless surely knows something about singing, and about life. He benefited from excellent teachers, worked tirelessly throughout his career and was unafraid to start again when he felt his voice was losing its inner support. He won second prize in Toulouse in 1961 and became a laureate in ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1962. Dvořák, Verdi and Janáček are the three pillars of his repertoire and three great musical loves. He has appeared at Teatro Colón, the Salzburg Festival under Claudio Abbado, and in Paris, Madrid and Venice, while in oratorios he sang under Karel Ančerl and Václav Neumann. He recorded the Glagolitic Mass with Sir Charles Mackerras and Riccardo Chailly. His beloved song repertoire, especially Dvořák’s Biblical Songs, also receives ample attention. This portrait honours an admirable man and singer whose lifelong artistic work, however, is far from complete.