Album

Anna Paulová

Husa, Martinů: Music for Clarinet

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Catalogue Number: SU 4327-2

Published: 9th June 2023

Genre: Chamber Music

Format: 1 CD

This album has received following awards:

Joker Découverte, Crescendo Magazine (2023)

Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) – Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano, H 356.
Karel Husa (1921–2016) – Évocations de Slovaquie for clarinet, viola and cello (1951). Four Bohemian Sketches for clarinet and piano (2010). Deux Préludes for flute, clarinet and bassoon (1965). Sonata à tre for violin, clarinet and piano (1981). Three Studies for solo clarinet (2007),

Anna Paulová – clarinet, Ivo Kahánek – piano, Oto Reiprich – flute, Jan Hudeček – bassoon, Jan Fišer – violin, Kristina Fialová – viola, Vilém Vlček – cello

The internationally renowned Czech-born composer Karel Husa, Pulitzer Prize and Grawemeyer Award winner, gathered invaluable experience from Arthur Honegger and Nadia Boulanger, with whom he studied in Paris in the 1940s and 1950s. He was also greatly influenced by the folk music of his native Bohemia, as well as Slovakia, which is duly reflected in his Évocations de Slovaquie and Four Bohemian Sketches. Husa’s later pieces for clarinet and a variety of other instruments attest to his propensity for innovation and experimentation, yet all of them are comprehensible and listener-friendly. The present album opens with the gracious and, now and then, melancholy Sonatina by Bohuslav Martinů, who, just like Husa, studied in Paris and experienced exile sorrow. The young Czech clarinettist Anna Paulová, a Prague Spring laureate and the holder of numerous accolades from other international competitions, has enthusiastically devoted to Karel Husa over the long term. Recorded with superb instrumentalists, her Supraphon debut is likely to increase general interest in the remarkable composer’s music.

A variety of clarinet colours and shades in Karel Husa and Bohuslav Martinů works

Reviews

“The three studies for solo clarinet mimic birdsong in the first movement, the second is more introverted and evocatively melancholy, with an increasing intensity, and the last, describes a tireless machine. Anna Paulova’s interpretation is fascinating.”
Pizzicato, August 2023

“Tout au long de cet album, il faut saluer la qualité superlative des musiciens, à commencer par la clarinettiste Anna Paulová au timbre flatteur et à la musicalité exemplaire. Cette jeune virtuose hisse à son niveau ses collègues. Tous sont engagés pour faire briller les facettes et les saveurs de ces musiques. La prise de son est, encore une fois chez Supraphon, magique et nous place au plus proche des musiciens. Avec cette parution, Supraphon s’affirme comme l’un des labels les plus intéressants du moment ! Le choix éditorial de ce disque est quant à lui exemplaire et devrait faire école!”
Crescendo, August 2023

“Everyone deserves credit for a concert very well played. Paulova and her collaborators dig into Husa’s unapologetic modernism, at once bold, brooding, contemplative, and powerful; and they render his disjunct lines, dissonant harmonies, and wild special effects with expansive dynamics and sincere romantic phrasing.”
American Record Guide, October 2023

“Martinůs „Sonatina" (1956), ein Spätwerk reinsten Wassers, klingt in der intensiven Interpretation von Paulová und Kahánek regelrecht heimwehkrank. Husa führt Martinůs Idiom in der „Sonata á tre" (1981) an den Rand der Atonalität. Ein überwältigendes Album!”
Fono Forum, October 2023

“Anna Paulová displays an attractive tone, and her reading is dynamic… This recital helps me appreciate Husa’s range, and although not everything here is easy to like it’s all real music by a real musician. Paulová and her colleagues provide excellent performances. Recommended.”
Fanfare, January 2024

“Chaque pièce, magistralement servie, est l'aboutissement d'une profonde maturation. Aucune ne ressemble à l’autre et aucune note n'y est superflue… Une page essentielle du répertoire précède cette anthologie Husa: la Sonatine pour clarinette de Bohuslav Martinů (1956), interprétée sans artifice et avec fraîcheur…”
Classica, June 2024