Performance of 1996.

Recorded in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague, 18-19 May (Op. 97) and 26-27 June 2017 (Op. 81).
Seven years after they triumphed with Dvořák’s quartets (SU40382, op. 96 “American” and op. 106 – Gramophone Award „Recording of the Year“), Pavel Haas Quartet are back to Dvořák. For the occasion of recording his quintets, they have invited two guests: the pianist Boris Giltburg (winner of 2013 Queen Elizabeth Competition), as well as one of the PHQ founding members, violist Pavel Nikl. Antonín Dvořák composed his Piano Quintet No. 2 while staying at his beloved summer house in Vysoká in the late summer of 1887. The renowned critic Eduard Hanslick responded to its performance in Vienna enthusiastically: „It is one of his most beautiful works. A genuine Dvořák.“ The String Quintet op. 97, albeit only six years younger, presents a completely „different Dvořák“. After the Symphony from the New World and the “American” quartet, the string quintet is the composer’s third work written in America.
Besides drawing inspiration from the music of the Native American tribe of the Iroquois which he heard in Spillville in the summer of 1893, he built the third movement around a theme that he had previously considered using in a proposal for a new American anthem.
And Hanslick’s testimonial? „This is probably the simplest, most natural and happiest music composed since Haydn’s times. The ear enjoys it with an easy-going attitude and the spirit is not bored for a single moment.“ Pavel Haas Quartet is at home in Dvořák’s music – to quote the Sunday Times, „In this repertoire, they are simply matchless today.“

Entitled the “Pathétique”, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony has always been an important work in Teodor Currentzis’s conducting career, since being deeply affected as a teenager by a recording conducted by Evgeny Mravinsky. Later on, Currentzis would study with Mravinsky’s former classmate Ilya Musin, who was renowned for his authoritative interpretation of Russian repertoire and his legacy of gifted protégés.
Currentzis holds strong views on the symphony and sees universal meaning in Tchaikovsky’s intent. As he explains:
“There are people who, after experiencing a fall, after surviving defeat, find some kind of special place, a special sanctuary. Their place amid the confusion of this world. If they fall repeatedly, then this refuge gradually becomes more and more familiar: it regales them with the sensuality that is lacking in the world above. The first time one is stabbed with a knife, it hurts; the second time, it is borne more easily; the third time, in order that one may survive, it becomes a piece of art. There are no aesthetics when it comes to open wounds.
What I want to bring to this music is not the strong emotionality or the big sound or the excellent form. The thing that I want to bring is the ‘flower of the wound’, the perfection of 110 musicians gathering to have a ceremony for the wounds we endure, not to merely play a concert. It is completely different. Not taking it in objectively as a kind of performance of this music, but as something else. To talk about our wounds and our experiences. So this is very important.”

弗朗西斯·普朗克( Poulenc 1899 -1963) ,法国作曲家。1899年1月7日出生于巴黎一个富裕的制药商家庭。早年曾随瓦因斯学习钢琴。1921年又曾随克什兰（Charles Koechlin）学习作曲，但从未进入过正规的音乐学院。一次大战期间，曾在海军部担任打字员。在此前后结识了米约、奥里克（Georges Auric）和萨蒂（Satie）。1917年创作了第一部声乐作品，受到斯特拉文斯基和佳吉列夫（Diaghilev）的鼓励。1920年，他与几位作曲家的交往，被评论家科莱（Henri Collet）称为是法国六人团。他们反对浪漫乐派，对抗包括德彪西在内的法国音乐传统。他一直渴望大歌剧的创作，但认为自己的技巧方面还存在缺陷，所以一直到1947年才写了第一部歌剧。他一生总共创作了三部歌剧，一些管风琴、大键琴、钢琴协奏曲，以及室内乐作品和少量的管弦乐作品。此外他特别热爱声乐作品，1935之后，他为法国男中音歌唱家贝尔纳克（Pierre Bernac）写了大量艺术歌曲。普朗克于1963年1月30日逝世于巴黎。

Luigi Rossi. Orfeo. (Paris, 1647). Harmonia Mundi HMC 1358/60 (3 CDs 1991). Tragicomedia per musica with libretto by Francesco Buti.
William Christie, Les Arts Florissants
Orfeo: Agnès Mellon, soprano;
Euridice: Monique Zanetti, soprano;
Nutrice / Bacco: Dominique Favat, mezzo-soprano;
Aristeo: Sandrine Piau, soprano;
Satiro: Nicholas Isherwood, bass;
Amore: Catherine Pelon, soprano;
Venere: Noémi Rime, soprano;
Vecchia / Giove: Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, tenor;
Endimione: Jérôme Correas, baritone;
Giunone: Marie Boyer, mezzo-soprano;
Augure / Plutone: Bernard Deletré, bass;
Apollo / Mercurio: Benoît Thivel, alto;
Momo / Caronte: Jean-Marc Salzmann, tenor;
Proserpina: Donatienne Michel-Dansac, soprano.