Janácek: Orchestral Suites from the Operas Volume 3

“…accomplished playing from the New Zealanders, and Naxos's sound is rich with depth.” --Gramophone Magazine, December 2009

With this disc Naxos completes its acclaimed recordings of Peter Breiner’s powerful and evocative orchestral suites from Janácek’s operas. In very different ways, The Cunning Little Vixen and From the House of the Dead both reflect on love and loneliness, life and death, good, evil and the human condition, with some of the composer’s most effective music.

The final volume in Breiner’s expansive extractions from Janáček’s operas

The suite usually performed from Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, arranged by Talich in the 1930s, is a 17-minute diptych using material from Act 1 only (ie up to the point of the Vixen’s bloody escape from the Forester’s yard) and is based on a reorchestration Talich commissioned that was easier to play. Breiner’s returns to the original and runs to nearly 40 minutes. Breiner’s first two movements follow the same basic trajectory as Talich’s but the suite then takes off with the Vixen’s courtship and eventual marriage to the Fox over the next two spans. The fifth movement deals with the Vixen’s desperate hunt to feed her cubs and eventual death at the hand of the poacher but the brief finale (“Vixen is Running”) lights up the orchestra with its paean to nature.

Hope of a different kind underlies From the House of the Dead, Janáček’s final opera. Here Breiner has started with the Overture (related to the music of the Violin Concerto) and proceeds once again through six highly coloured movements running to over 35 minutes. The hard edge of Janáček’s scoring, devoid of the vocal elements, becomes even more telling.

Breiner himself conducts, securing accomplished playing from the New Zealanders, and Naxos’s sound is rich with depth. --Guy Rickards, Gramophone, December 2009

Janácek: Orchestral Suites from the Operas Volume 2

…the Naxos sound…is satisfyingly deep and wide…Breiner…does capture some of the opera’s distinctive rhythms and colours—just listen to those dashes of Taras Bulba starting at 1:52. Also, there is some lovely, tender playing at the start of the second movement, while in the third—where Kát’a looks forward to her clandestine meeting with Boris—Breiner conjures up vivid, authentic-sounding harmonies; there is more dramatic thrust here as well, although perhaps the sharper edges of Janáček’s score are somewhat blunted.

 

I particularly liked the free-flowing music of Intermezzos and Songs (tr. 4), where Breiner teases delectable sounds from his orchestra…the New Zealand Symphony…with flair and character throughout. The lovers’ brief moments of happiness are glowingly done, but before long we are plunged into the final movement and the approaching storm. This pivotal event is a lightning rod for all the opera’s pent-up emotions, rendered by Janáček in music of extraordinary tension and power. Yes, Breiner is exciting here and he does capture the pain of Kát’a’s dilemma, but in this arrangement we lose sight of the opera’s broader span, its cumulative tension.

…The New Zealand Symphony sound thrilling here [The Makropulos Affair], Wellington Town Hall a good match for Breiner’s more expansive view of the score…Breiner finds a good balance between lyricism and drama, seriousness and absurdity, in tracks 8 and 9. In the end Emilia is within reach of that elusive potion but decides to embrace death instead. Despite the absurdities of the plot Janáček’s potent score makes it remarkably easy to suspend disbelief, nowhere more so than here.

…Some listeners will enjoy this selection of tunes; others will surely prefer the emotional and musical maelstrom of the operas themselves. --MusicWeb International, July 2009

Janácek: Orchestral Suites from the Operas Volume 1

“The extracts, expertly chosen by Peter Breiner, stand up reasonably well in the absence of the voices. They are nicely varied in character and pace, and are conducted by him with passion and sympathetic understanding.” --Gramophone Magazine, May 2009

“These are fine performances and stunningly dynamic recordings, with some fine low drum rumbles and plenty of sparkle and colour in the spectrum… if you want some refreshingly new orchestral music and an alternative view on Janácek then this is a very strong contender indeed.” --MusicWeb International

The operas of Leoš Janácek have been gaining their rightful place in major opera houses the world over.

First staged in 1904, Jenufa, a powerful tragedy set in a Moravian village, launched Janácek’s operatic career.

The Excursions of Mr Broucek, which had its première in 1920, is his most candidly satirical opera, rich in high jinks as the bumptious Prague publican travels to the Moon and back to the 15th century.

Peter Breiner, who created the compelling orchestral suites heard on this disc, conducts these world première recordings.

Janáček: Taras Bulba, Etc

“Wit is certainly alive to the connections between Taras and the late operas, notably The Cunning Little Vixen. The is aided by some extremely fine wind and brass playing from the Warsaw Philharmonic. Notwithstanding a slightly over-expansive ending and a somewhat close recorded ambience, this is an estimable performance...the orchestral playing is both rhythmically responsive and attractively colourful.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 ****

“The sound in general is warm and vivid, and Antoni Wit has a sure hand with all Janacek's demands...Fascinating to hear as versions of material that was feeding into his mature idiom, they are in their own right colourful and highly enjoyable pieces, relished here by the Polish players.” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2012
 

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Antoni Wit

Leoš Janácek was an authority on his native folk-music, and the Lachian and Moravian Dances preserve and celebrate culture and traditions which were vanishing even in his own lifetime. Based on Gogol’s historical novel, Janácek’s inspired orchestral rhapsody on Taras Bulba depicts three moving and dramatic episodes in the violent life of the Cossack leader, climaxing in his stirring and triumphant prophecy of liberation. This release follows Antoni Wit’s acclaimed Warsaw recording of Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass and Sinfonietta (8572639).

This release follows hot on the heels of Antoni Wit’s recording of Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass (8572639 and Blu-ray Audio NBD0026), which was described as “gripping from start to finish” by Gramophone and “a major release – a mandatory purchase” in a 10/10 review from ClassicsToday.com. With its mixture of the powerfully emotive Taras Bulba and more pastoral Dances, and the Warsaw Philharmonic’s proven track record in Janácek’s remarkable scores, this release will generate its own substantial following.