Hunting Music of Old Czech Masters / Lovecká hudba starých českých mistrů - CD

Hunting music is inseparable from the sounds of the chase: excited hounds, frightened game, gunshots, horns and trumpets. These signals and the atmosphere of the hunt gave rise to an entire musical genre, most strongly symbolized by the French horn, which became established in Bohemia after 1760 through Count František Antonín Špork. Hunting music for various ensembles, often wind harmonies, was later performed not during the hunt itself but at banquets and other entertainments. Cassations, serenades and partitas, often bearing the titles Caccia or La Chasse, evoked the hunt through their instrumentation, characteristic harmonies and melodies, vivid sound effects, animal and bird calls, and scenes of celebration after the chase. This recording presents three composers of Czech high Classicism: Jiří Družecký and Jan Nepomuk Vent, prolific creators of popular music for wind instruments, and Pavel Vranický, a friend of Haydn and Beethoven who was a prominent figure in Vienna’s theatrical life. The programme features Družecký’s Partita Berdlersgarn, Vent’s Partita in D-sharp, and Vranický’s Sinfonia in D “La Chasse”, performed by Collegium Musicum Pragensae and the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK under František Vajnar.