Pavlica & Zrunek: Patoral Masses

An outstanding team of musicians prepared this unique recording of two pastoral masses. While the two compositions are separated by nearly two and a half centuries, they both furnish evidence of the penetration of folk music elements into the idiom of artificial music. The present set opens with the Missa Brevis, composed by Jiří Pavlica in 1997 and re-written during the ensuing two years. It is coupled here with a work entitled Harmonia Pastoralis, Mass in F major, which was written by a long anonymous composer active in the second half of the 18th century, recentlyidentified as Pater Georgius Zrunek. The most original feature of this recording consists in its intertwining the sound of the soloists, chamber chorus and orchestra, with that of the HradišťanEnsemble's cymbalom band. The resulting effect is thoroughly extraordinary.