KATEŘINA ENGLICHOVÁ DISCOVERS THE BEAUTY OF MODERN CZECH AND GLOBAL MUSIC

The new album (SU 4185–2) made by the renowned Czech harpist Kateřina Englichová primarily features works by 20th- and 21st-century Czech composers. Yet it also contains Benjamin Britten’s Suite for Harp, one of the core pieces of the 20th-century harp repertoire. “It was not included on the album by chance,” says Kateřina Englichová, adding: “I want to show the quality of the music written for the harp by contemporary Czech composers, who can indisputably be ranked among the very finest in this domain. The disc features premiere recordings, pieces that Ilja Hurník, Luboš Sluka and Jiří Gemrot have dedicated to me, as well as works that have not previously been released on CD, by Miloslav Kabeláč and Milan Slavický.”

Seeking an intriguing repertoire led Englichová to the composers of the second half of the 20th century. “Many of us associate the harp with a romantic image – a fair damsel gently delving into its strings, producing an emptily virtuoso music, which after a while starts to grate. Kateřina Englichová’s new CD, though, is a different story altogether: the fair damsel and her virtuosity remain, yet when it comes to the actual music, we hear the revealing, occasionally playful, now and then wildly beautiful harp of the Czech and international modernists. Kateřina Englichová is a splendid guide through these new musical landscapes,” says Matouš Vlčinský, Supraphon’s chief classical music producer, of the new album.

Slavický, Hurník and Kabeláč present the harp as a dynamic and assertive instrument, expressively flexible and crying out for rediscovery. They have found inspiration in the French suite (Sluka), Mozart’s catchy themes (Hurník), and the timbre potentialities of the flute and harp (Kabeláč).

Coming as surprise for many will be just how much pioneering but wonderful music for the harp was written in tiny Bohemia at the time when Britten was creating his Suite. On two compositions, the partner to Englichová is the distinguished American flautist Carol Wincenc, an esteemed professor at the Juilliard School, while Gemrot’s trio is also performed by the oboist Vilém Veverka and the pianist Martin Kasík.

Kateřina Englichová’s album, Musica per arpa, was released by Supraphon on 16 October 2015. The recording has been supported by the company RWE.

VIDEO: http://y2u.be/Soy08F19lYc

For further details please visit:
www.englichova.cz