Album
Pavol Breslik, Robert Pechanec
Dvořák: Songs - Cypresses, Evening Songs, Gypsy Songs
Catalogue Number: SU 4215-2
Published: 21st April 2017
Genre: Vocal
Format: 1 CD
Antonín Dvořák - Cypřiše (B 11), Večerní písně op. 31, Cigánské melodie op. 55
Pavol Breslik - tenor, Robert Pechanec - piano
"Imagine a young lad in love - that is what the piece is about!" This is how Dvořák himself characterised The Cypresses, a work he composed at the age of twenty-three when he fell for the young actress Josefina Čermáková (who was later to become his sister-in-law). Regardless of the fact that it is a juvenile and in many ways imperfect composition, Dvořák kept returning to it, exploiting its motives as material for his later opuses. For his Evening Songs written at a more mature stage of his professional career, he chose equally yearning verses by Czech poet Vítězslav Hálek. Even the poetry of Adolf Heyduk that served as a model for the Gypsy Songs features motives of love, although in a broader sense involving the love of music, nature and freedom. The wife of the famous virtuoso Joseph Joachim took Songs My Mother Taught Me to her heart and the song later became one of Dvořák true "hits" worldwide. Pavol Breslik is an outstanding tenor invited by most prominent opera houses and concert halls (MET, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Berlin) and besides operatic works, he focuses on song repertoire. After Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin he took a fancy to Dvořák's songs and, accompanied flawlessly by Robert Pechanec, imprinted all of his passion into the present recording.
Pavol Breslik awakes all the timbre shades of love in Dvořák's songs
Pavol Breslik - tenor, Robert Pechanec - piano
"Imagine a young lad in love - that is what the piece is about!" This is how Dvořák himself characterised The Cypresses, a work he composed at the age of twenty-three when he fell for the young actress Josefina Čermáková (who was later to become his sister-in-law). Regardless of the fact that it is a juvenile and in many ways imperfect composition, Dvořák kept returning to it, exploiting its motives as material for his later opuses. For his Evening Songs written at a more mature stage of his professional career, he chose equally yearning verses by Czech poet Vítězslav Hálek. Even the poetry of Adolf Heyduk that served as a model for the Gypsy Songs features motives of love, although in a broader sense involving the love of music, nature and freedom. The wife of the famous virtuoso Joseph Joachim took Songs My Mother Taught Me to her heart and the song later became one of Dvořák true "hits" worldwide. Pavol Breslik is an outstanding tenor invited by most prominent opera houses and concert halls (MET, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Berlin) and besides operatic works, he focuses on song repertoire. After Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin he took a fancy to Dvořák's songs and, accompanied flawlessly by Robert Pechanec, imprinted all of his passion into the present recording.
Pavol Breslik awakes all the timbre shades of love in Dvořák's songs
Reviews
“Le timbre est très clair, élancé mais masculin. Le vibrato rapide qui affecte certaines notes tenues n’a rien de désagréable, et la légère tension qu’on sent dans le si bémol aigu qui couronne la dernière des Mélodies tziganes contribue à la vivacité de l’interprétation.”
Forum Opera, March 2017
“Les trois cycles de mélodies réunis sur ce disque trouvent ainsi en Pavol Breslik leur interprète idéal. Doté d’un timbre d’une solarité toute italienne, capable également de la plus belle ligne mozartienne, le jeune ténor manie comme peu de ses confrères l’art de la mezza voce tout en sachant donner du volume quand il le faut. On mesure à quel point les Chansons tziganes gagnent à être interprétées par un vrai ténor d’opéra, comme cela avait été le cas avec le ténor Gustav Walter, familier des opéras de Verdi, pour qui Dvořák avait conçu le cycle qui allait lui ouvrir les portes vers les cercles et les salons européens.”
ResMusica, 26th July 2017
“Mit magischen Tönen weiβ der Tenor Pavol Breslik zu verzaubern, der auf seinen neuen Album mit Liedern von Antonín Dvořák einmal mehr beweist, dass er über der schönsten Tenorstimmen unserer Tage verfürgt.”
XTRA!, September 2017
“D´autant que le Slovaque veille toujours à l´éloquence des notes et du verbe, tant lorsqu´il plastronne que dans le mélodies plus intimes. Un récital de haut vol.”
Diapason, February 2018
“Pavol Breslik a bien capté l’esprit doux-amer de cette musique, aussi à l’aise dans le rêve que dans l’angoisse, dans la passion que dans le désespoir.”
ConcertoNet, September 2018