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Prazak Quartet - Leos Janacek: String Quartets; Concertino (2014)

Posted By: Designol
Prazak Quartet - Leos Janacek: String Quartets; Concertino (2014)

Pražák Quartet - Leoš Janáček: String Quartets; Concertino (2014)
with Slávka Pěchočová-Vernerová, piano; Milan Polák, clarinet
Lukáš Kořínek, bassoon; Jan Vobořil, french horn

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 280 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 142 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # PRD/DSD 250 301 | Time: 00:59:46

In the last 30 years, the relationship between the leading Czech string quartets and Janáček two String Quartets has evolved markedly. The best Czech performers have always produced fine recordings of these extraordinary works, but more recent generations of players have pursued a different level of engagement. While performances such as that of the Talich Quartet (2005) show remarkable insight, recordings by other quartets, such as the Haas and ≤kampa, grapple with the passion and drama, occasionally even sadism in these turbulent works. The Pražák Quartet has an international reputation in Czech repertoire, in particular for their Dvořák their new recording of Janáček’s Quartets shares many of their fellow ensembles’ keen engagement with the composer’s language.

Pražák Quartet - Leoš Janáček: String Quartet 1 & 2, Violin Sonata (1997)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Leoš Janáček: String Quartet 1 & 2, Violin Sonata (1997)

Pražák Quartet - Leoš Janáček: String Quartet 1 & 2, Violin Sonata (1997)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 282 Mb | Total time: 60:11 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # PRD 250 108 | Recorded: 1997

From the heart of Central Europe in the first quarter of the twentieth century comes this penetrating, challenging, occasionally disturbing, and ever rewarding music for small ensembles. The Prague-born Prazak Quartet is of course equal to the challenge. Leos Janacek’s music for string quartet show what the genre can be. Easily mistaken for a weak, limpid subset of classical music, music for quartet a la Janacek is as sinewy and energetic as it gets.

Pražák Quartet & Zemlinsky Quartet - Bohuslav Martinů: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 & 6 (2009/2022)

Posted By: delpotro
Pražák Quartet & Zemlinsky Quartet - Bohuslav Martinů: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 & 6 (2009/2022)

Pražák Quartet & Zemlinsky Quartet - Bohuslav Martinů: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 & 6 (2009/2022)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 360 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 169 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:12:24
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals

The composer of Julietta left seven string quartets that do not, by any means, form a cycle but rather a succession of testimonies stretching from 1920 to 1947. This second volume – the first is on PRAGA 250 205 - juxtaposed the French Quartet (No. 1), a lengthy and luxurious, homage to Debussy and Dvorak, the shortest (No.3) ‘pocket’ Quartet and the Sixth written in the post-war utopia, a fantastic counterpoint of madrigals for strings with astonishing polymelodicism, introduction da camera to last Symphony No. 6 (Symphonic Fantasies, 1951-53), with his earnest, struggling character and high symphonic spirit.

Pražák Quartet & Jaromir Klepac - Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 3, Scherzo, Presto, Chamber Symphony (2010/2022)

Posted By: delpotro
Pražák Quartet & Jaromir Klepac - Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 3, Scherzo, Presto, Chamber Symphony (2010/2022)

Pražák Quartet & Jaromir Klepac - Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet No. 3, Scherzo, Presto, Chamber Symphony (2010/2022)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 320 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 152 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:04:26
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals

The fifth volume devoted to Schönberg’s chamber music. On display here is writing that, after being based on traditional models (youthful Scherzo and Presto), evolves towards a melodic density and clarity of counterpoint making the Chamber Symphony, Op.9 (1906) accomplished and radiant as much in its chamber transcriptions as in the versions for full orchestra. The Quartet No.3 (1926) achieves a masterful balance between rhythm and harmony, melody and counterpoint, horizontality and verticality. All these processes blend in an original art of the continuous variation. By blurring the formal aspect, the PRAŽÁKs make him the heir of other Viennese: Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms… and Beethoven.

Pražák Quartet - Haydn: The Last Three String Quartets (2021)

Posted By: delpotro
Pražák Quartet - Haydn: The Last Three String Quartets (2021)

Pražák Quartet - Haydn: The Last Three String Quartets (2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 273 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 139 Mb | Digital booklet | 00:59:55
Classical | Label: Praga

In 1799, Haydn undertook the composition of a six quartet series dedicated to the Prince Lobkowitz. The two quartets Op.77 Nos.1 and 2 were the first outcome of this project. Kept busy by the composition of his Seasons and the Harmoniemesse, Haydn couldn't complete the entire series before his passing, but he left two fragments of a third quartet, which make up the Op.103. These three last quartets, bold and full of wit, are the final goodbye of an old master. Underscoring the hand over between two generations of composers, this program pays homage to the Prazak Quartet, which continues the evolution it began in 2015, and opens a new chapter in its history.

Pražák Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets [7CDs] (2005)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets [7CDs] (2005)

Pražák Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets [7CDs] (2005)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 2.22 Gb | Total time: 8:31:53 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # PRD/DSD 350 013 | Recorded: 1999-2003

Beethoven's String Quartets are well known for their inventiveness. The mold of the string quartet form, established by Haydn, was shattered by Beethoven's profound expression and expansion of the "rules." Between 1999 and 2003, the renowned Pražák Quartet recorded all of the Beethoven string quartets, and this match of program and performers is one made in heaven.

Pražák Quartet in Concert - Thirty Years after his International Evian Prize: Haydn, Martinů, Feld, Beerhoven (2008)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet in Concert - Thirty Years after his International Evian Prize: Haydn, Martinů, Feld, Beerhoven (2008)

Pražák Quartet in Concert - Thirty Years after his International Evian Prize: Haydn, Martinů, Feld, Beerhoven (2008)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 367 Mb | Total time: 75:26 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # PRD/DSD 350 045 - HM 76 | Recorded: 2006, 2008

Although all of the quartet's original members with the exception of violist Josef Kluson have moved on since its 1972 founding, the Prazák Quartet has maintained many of its original traditions. For starters, the Prazák Quartet has long distinguished itself as an ensemble almost obsessed with technical precision. From its earliest recordings to the present, intonation, articulation, balance, phrasing, and even the matching of vibrato have been among its trademarks. All of these technical proficiencies have never come at the expense of musical integrity. Quite the contrary, in fact; the performances are typically quite passionate and musically sating.

Pražák Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartet, Op. 130 & Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 (2004)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartet, Op. 130 & Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 (2004)

Pražák Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartet, Op. 130; Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 (2004)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 264 Mb | Total time: 55:22 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | PRD/DSD 250 206 | Recorded: 2003

Originally written as the finale of the quartet op. 130 and, in fact, finale of the set dedicated to Prince Galitsin (opp. 127, 132), the “GROSSE FUGE” (the Great Fugue) ends today the complete set of Beethoven's string quartets, providing its crowning moment as formally rigorous as deeply human by its search for absolute.

Pražák Quartet - Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No. 2; Cello Sonata; Piano Quintet in C minor (2000)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No. 2; Cello Sonata; Piano Quintet in C minor (2000)

Pražák Quartet - Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No. 2; Cello Sonata; Piano Quintet in C minor (2000)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 336 Mb | Total time: 77:02 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | PRD 250 139 | Recorded: 1999

An amateur cellist, the composer of Prince Igor was the only one of the Group of Five to have written some ten chamber works for his personal pleasure in keeping with the laws of Germanic rhetoric - to Balakirev's great displeasure. One of them is a pure masterpiece: his Quartet in D, featuring an irresistible Nocturne, which has been played round the world in various arrangements.

Pražák Quartet - Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets; From the Homeland (1999)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets; From the Homeland (1999)

Pražák Quartet - Bedřich Smetana: String Quartets; From the Homeland (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 265 Mb | Total time: 58:25 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | PRD 250 128 | Recorded: 1998-1999

Classical in its respect for established forms, romantic in its clearly autobiographical nature, the chamber music by the composer of The Bartered Bride is not plentiful, especially when compared with the output of his younger, immediate successor, Antonfn Dvoiik, who returned to the string quaner form rhroughout his creative life, producing fifteen between 1862 and 1895. Well removed from absolute music - as would be Leoš Janáček's after him -, Smetana's surviving chamber catalogue consists of only four works that make up a rare case of psychological programme music. The Piano Trio(1855) already represented a sort of tombeau for the small daughter he had recently lost to scarlet fever.

Pražák Quartet - Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 Op. 51/2, String Quintet No. 2 Op. 111 (2006)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 Op. 51/2, String Quintet No. 2 Op. 111 (2006)

Pražák Quartet - Johannes Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 Op. 51/2, String Quintet No. 2 Op. 111 (2006)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 303 Mb | Total time: 61:26 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | PRD/DSD 250 236 | Recorded: 2009, 2010

Written more than 15 years apart, these two scores, juxtaposed here for the first time, successively illustrate the somewhat morose ‘Nordic’ inspiration of the composer of Ein deutsches Requiem, then a more intimate poetic feeling, and finally a communicative serenity, the headiness of a ‘Hungarian’ dance in the Quartet, a sort of wild csárdás with quasi-orchestral force in the coda of the Quintet.

Evgeni Koroliov, Pražák Quartet - Shostakovich: String Quartets, Opp. 108 & 110; Piano Quintet, Op. 57 (2010)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Evgeni Koroliov, Pražák Quartet - Shostakovich: String Quartets, Opp. 108 & 110; Piano Quintet, Op. 57 (2010)

Evgeni Koroliov, Pražák Quartet - Shostakovich: String Quartets, Opp. 108 & 110; Piano Quintet, Op. 57 (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 310 Mb | Total time: 66:34 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | PRD/DSD 250 270 | Recorded: 2009, 2010

The back cover of this Czech release promises "certainly the most intense chamber programme that might be dedicated to the joint memory of Sviatoslav Richter and Dmitry Shostakovich," and the performances live up to the billing. The first half of the program is given over to a pair of string quartets from the year 1960, around the point where Shostakovich's inward turn following his denunciation by Soviet cultural commissars merged with his reflections on the violence of modern war to create a uniquely modern tragic dialogue.

Pražák Quartet, Hatto Beyerle - Mozart: String Quintets K 593 & K 516 (2005)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet, Hatto Beyerle - Mozart: String Quintets K 593 & K 516 (2005)

Pražák Quartet, Hatto Beyerle - Mozart: String Quintets K 593 & K 516 (2005)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 322 Mb | Total time: 60:45 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | PRD 350 012 | Recorded: 2000

This first "live" recording of the Prazák Quartet was made in February, 2000 to commemorate the ensemble's 2000th concert. The Prazáks are joined by violist Hatto Beyerlé, best known for his dozen years as the violist of the Alban Berg Quartet. Together, they match the finest performances of these masterpieces on disc. Here is playing with intensity and power that does not exclude delicacy and genuine feeling.

Pražák Quartet - Haydn: Apponyi' Quartets Op. 71 (2012)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Pražák Quartet - Haydn: Apponyi' Quartets Op. 71 (2012)

Pražák Quartet - Haydn: Apponyi' Quartets Op. 71 (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 321 Mb | Total time: 62:02 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals ‎ | RD/DSD 250 289 | Recorded: 2012

Count Anton George Apponyi was a relative of Haydn's patrons the Esterhazys. Although commissioned by Count Apponyi, the quartets that bear his name were actually inspired by a series of successful public concerts of Haydn's music in London organized by Johann Peter Salomon. These concerts made Haydn an international music superstar and brought about a decided change in the composer's style. The emotional, virtuosic and powerful music found in these quartets presages the spirit of the Romantic period. Following on their decidedly symphonic reading of Haydn's Seven Last Words, the Pražák Quartet is fully in tune with the grand gestures found in these first three of the six Apponyi quartets.