Zach: Requiem & Vesperae de Beata Virgine
Michaela Srumova (soprano), Sylva Cmugrova (alto), Cenek Svoboda (tenor) & Jaromir Nosek (bass)
Musica Florea & Collegium Floreum, Marek Stryncl
The performers respond to this volatile music with singing and playing that is well-focused and compellingly expressive. Both works are well worth investigating, but the Vespers are a real find.
Zach: Requiem & Vesperae de Beata Virgine
Michaela Srumova (soprano), Sylva Cmugrova (alto), Cenek Svoboda (tenor) & Jaromir Nosek (bass)
Musica Florea & Collegium Floreum, Marek Stryncl
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The performers respond to this volatile music with singing and playing that is well-focused and compellingly expressive. Both works are well worth investigating, but the Vespers are a real find.
About
Jan Zach, a new name in this series, ranks among the "Czech music migrants" of the 18th century. However, before leaving war-struck Bohemia in 1741, when he was twenty-eight years old, he had already composed a substantial amount of music. The focus of his work lies in liturgical music - the text of the Requiem mass alone was set to music by Zach three times. His Requiem solemne in C minor was one of the most frequently performed Requiems on Prague church choirs (a fact witnessed by a great number of surviving copies) and could still be heard as late as the 20th century. Today's audiences can listen to this mass as a resounding textbook of compositional styles used at the time and admire Zach's impressive array of stylistic elements, ranging from strict counterpoint to modern coloratura arias. His Vesperae de Beata Virgine (introduced here in a latterday premiere) were also widely used in Prague in Zach's time. Here we can already trace the first echoes of the style of the Viennese classicist school. Both works give us an idea of music that sounded in newly-built Prague churches in the 1730s. Members of the internationally renowned ensemble Musica Florea have accomplished this premiere with their characteristic lively engagement.
Contents and tracklist
- Michaela Šrůmová (vocalist), Jaromír Nosek (vocalist), Collegium Floreum, Sylva Čmugrová (vocalist), Čeněk Svoboda (vocalist)
- Musica Florea
- Marek Štryncl
- Michaela Šrůmová (vocalist), Sylva Čmugrová (vocalist), Čeněk Svoboda (vocalist), Jaromír Nosek (vocalist), Collegium Floreum
- Musica Florea
- Marek Štryncl
Awards and reviews
April 2017
The performers respond to this volatile music with singing and playing that is well-focused and compellingly expressive. Both works are well worth investigating, but the Vespers are a real find.