Many Passions of Leos Janacek

In connection with the previous compilation, The Many Loves of Antonín Dvorák, which met with favourable response from reviewers in the USA and in the UK, we asked the BBC 3 long-time music producer and one of the great experts in and lovers of Czech music and it's recordings, Patrick Lambert, to compile a similar series dedicated to the Moravian master. It's name alone - Many Passions - reflects Janácek's temperament and the selection is a result of thorough research into his personality. The composer approached all life's changes with a wide range of emotions. Therefore, eight categories were created and got the same names as Janácek's passions: the Folk Tradition; the Czech Case - Politics and Patriotism; Family; Life and Nature; Friendship with Dvorák; Women; Russian Literature; Religious Roots. The set contains famous pieces, such as Sinfonietta, Taras Bulba, Glagolitic Mass, Jenufa and The Cunning Little Vixen, as well as many discoveries that put Janácek's work into context, e.g. his choruses Seventy-thousand and The Czech Legion, the Danube Symphony, Prelude in G minor for organ and a fragment of his Mass in E flat major. The selection of performers includes the classics of Janácek interpretation from Brno and Prague and some unique archival recordings as well as many new ones. Among the conductors are Bretislav Bakala, František Jílek, Jaroslav Vogel, Václav Neumann, Karel Ancerl, Bohumil Gregor, Sir Charles Mackerras and Jakub Hruša, and other performers include important Bohemian and Moravian choirs, soloists Theodor Šrubar, Beno Blachut, Libuše Domanínská and Gabriela Benacková, and instrumentalists Josef Suk, Ilja Hurník, Jan Panenka, the Janácek Quartet and the Pavel Haas Quartet. The choice of compositions deeply reflects Janácek's greatly varied music, paying homage to the most remarkable 20th-century Czech composer on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of his death and celebrating the unique richness of Supraphon's archives. An original selection of Leoš Janácek's works released on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the composer's death