The Many Passions of Leoš Janáček - 4 CD

This four-CD collection presents an original selection from the work of Leoš Janáček, assembled to mark the 95th anniversary of the composer’s death. Following the well-received compilation The Many Loves of Antonín Dvořák, Patrick Lambert, a longtime music producer for BBC 3 and a leading expert on and admirer of Czech music and its recordings, was invited to create a similar series devoted to the Moravian master. The title reflects Janáček’s temperament, while the selection results from an in-depth examination of his personality and the wide range of emotions with which he approached life’s transformations. The programme is organised into eight categories described as Janáček’s passions: Folk Tradition; The Czech Cause—Politics and Patriotism; Family; Life and Nature; Friendship with Dvořák; Women; Russian Literature; and Religious Roots. Alongside famous works such as Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba, the Glagolitic Mass, Jenůfa and The Cunning Little Vixen, it includes numerous discoveries that place Janáček’s work in context, including his choral pieces Seventy Thousand and The Czech Legion, the Danube Symphony, the Prelude in G minor for organ and a fragment of the Mass in E-flat major. The performers include leading interpreters from Brno and Prague, unique archival recordings and many new recordings. Conductors include Břetislav Bakala, František Jílek, Jaroslav Vogel, Václav Neumann, Karel Ančerl, Bohumil Gregor, Sir Charles Mackerras and Jakub Hrůša, alongside distinguished Czech and Moravian choirs, soloists such as Theodor Šrubař, Beno Blachut, Libuše Domanínská and Gabriela Beňačková, and instrumentalists including Josef Suk, Ilja Hurník, Jan Panenka, Janáček Quartet and Pavel Haas Quartet. The selection reflects the extraordinary diversity of Janáček’s work, pays tribute to the most remarkable Czech composer of the 20th century and celebrates the unique richness of the Supraphon archive.