CZECH ENSEMBLE BAROQUE’S NEW ALBUM

On 16th February 2018, Supraphon will release an album of F. X. Richter’s Te Deum 1781, Exsultate Deo and Oboe Concerto, for the very first time recorded on period instruments, by Czech Ensemble Baroque, conducted by Roman Válek. Czech Ensemble Baroque have for many years dedicated to exploring and performing the composer’s re­markable music. The album also features the Polish countertenor Piotr Olech, the Czech sopranos Markéta Böhmová and Pavla Radostová, the tenors Jaroslav Březina and Jakub Kubín, the bass-baritone Jiří M. Procházka, and the German oboist Luise Haugk. The CD has been supported by the Ministry of Culture and the State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic.

“I regard the present album as being of major significance for our ensemble. In contrast to the weighty Requiem and La Deposizione dalla croce di Gesù Cristo, it present a different type of Richter’s music: sparkling, radiant and highly imaginative. When it comes to the sound, we strove to combine the inventiveness of the Mannheim productions and the acoustics of the Strasbourg Cathedral, which represented Richter’s Olympus. After having completed our third CD, we can proudly claim that Richter did possess a singular style, one that might have come across as conservative in his time but harbouring an amplitude of Baroque emotions, which today is admired by, for instance, Zelenka fans all over the world,” the artistic director of Czech Ensemble Baroque and conductor Roman Válek said, adding: “We are proud rediscoverers of the music of Richter, a composer born in our region, which in his time was a far more European and far more integrated place for music than it is nowadays, even though part of the European Union. Our recording activities also aim at attaining a higher awareness of the Czech 18th-century musical giants among audiences and at attracting their attention to the truly global roots of Czech music, which are an integral part of the golden age of European culture.”

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