Collegium Musicum is a Slovak prog-rock band. Its founder and leading figure was Marian Varga, one of the most distinctive rock keyboardist. Their style is similar to Emerson Lake & Palmer, Rick Wakeman, and The Nice. The band mostly known for interpretations of familiar themes from the works of classical music (such as Concerto in D by Joseph Haydn), and in this respect the most important group from the former Eastern Bloc.
The group was formed in autumn 1969 and was apparently the first ever creator of art-rock music in Czechoslovakia. The core of the largest and most intense touring productivity formed the Marian Varga, bassist Fedor Fres and drummer Dušan Hájek. With the shorter breaks the group worked on the music scene in 1979. Later it Varga occasionally renewed several times, especially in 1981 due to the recording of divergences.

On her third PENTATONE album Nostalgia, Magdalena Kožená presents Bartók’s Village Scenes, Mussorgsky’s The Nursery and a selection of Brahms songs, together with acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman. Sung in Slovak, Russian and German, these songs on love, longing and innocence show three master composers transforming folk traditions into their unique musical styles. Kožená demonstrates her vocal mastery once more, and this recording with Bronfman is the result of a two-decades-spanning congenial artistic partnership.

On her third PENTATONE album Nostalgia, Magdalena Kožená presents Bartók’s Village Scenes, Mussorgsky’s The Nursery and a selection of Brahms songs, together with acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman. Sung in Slovak, Russian and German, these songs on love, longing and innocence show three master composers transforming folk traditions into their unique musical styles. Kožená demonstrates her vocal mastery once more, and this recording with Bronfman is the result of a two-decades-spanning congenial artistic partnership. Nostalgia is star mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená’s third album as part of her exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, after having presented the baroque cantatas recital album Il giardino dei sospiri and the songs in chamber-musical setting project Soirée in 2019. Yefim Bronfman, whose commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike, makes his PENTATONE debut.