KATEŘINA KNĚŽÍKOVÁ AND JAKUB HRŮŠA HAVE RECORDED AN ALBUM OF SONGS BY RICHARD STRAUSS

Soprano Kateřina Kněžíková is a star both in today’s world of opera and on concert stages (BBC SO, Bamberger Symphoniker, Czech Philharmonic, LPO, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, RLPO etc.). Following her album Phidylé, which attracted a wave of positive attention from critics worldwide (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, BBC Music Magazine Award), she has let herself be carried away by the world of Richard Strauss’s songs, a world full of micro-dramas, transparent emotions, and depth of intimacy. Along with the conductor Jakub Hrůša and the Bamberger Symphoniker, she has recorded an album titled Tag und Nacht containing both Strauss’s orchestral songs and his intimate songs with piano. Unusually, Jakub Hrůša himself is playing the piano accompaniments. Supraphon will release the recording on 20 September 2024 on CD and in digital formats.

The selection of songs for the album Tag und Nacht includes the famous cycle Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), in which Strauss’s music deals with themes of parting and death. However, Kněžíková and Hrůša did not limit themselves to songs with orchestra. Their sensitively chosen selection also includes songs with piano, spanning Strauss’s entire oeuvre from early works to late ones. Jakub Hrůša told us: “I threw myself into the whole project with very heartfelt eagerness, but also with an extreme burden of responsibility, of course. I am not trained as a professional pianist (although I had a passion for playing the piano in my youth), and I could feel that fact weighing greatly within me. But the orchestral songs, which were recorded first, simply cried out for more, and besides that, Kateřina was so satisfied with collaborating with me as her pianist that she ultimately persuaded me as well to go into it with full determination and commitment. These songs are beautiful, and it was a pleasure to work on them. Really, the main problem for me was finding the time to seat myself at the piano for serious work, given my conducting schedule and how I am going from place to place with rehearsals or concerts nearly every day. Nobody gets anywhere without practising. And then setting a date that works for the whole team –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and holding up mentally in these extraordinary circumstances while making the recording. But the result and the feeling that goes with it have made it worthwhile. I’m enormously pleased with the album, and I’m glad I persevered.” Kateřina Kněžíková added what collaborating with Jakub Hrůša has meant to her: “It was truly a rare encounter with Jakub, and not ‘just’ as a conductor, but especially as a pianist. I greatly admire how he threw himself into it with his typical energy and enthusiasm. It’s a miracle that we have carried this multi-year project through to a successful conclusion. We’re both proud of the result, and we hope our enthusiasm for Richard Strauss’s works will also carry over to listeners.”

Each of the Strauss songs recorded on the album Tag und Nacht is like a perfectly polished gem, the beauty of which is enhanced by the extraordinary creative collaboration between the two artists. “I would be pleased if listeners will want to hear Richard Strauss’s ingenious music and the beautiful texts he set to music over and over again”, Kateřina Kněžíková tells her listeners, and Jakub Hrůša adds: “I hope that the beauty and quality of the music will come across to them just as it came across to Kateřina and me in a truly enchanting way while recording it. And my wish would be that our album touches them –not in some sentimental way, but really deeply. When we were listening to ourselves afterwards with some detachment with the whole recording team (including the amazing gentlemen directing the recording, Mr. Gemrot and Mr. Hadraba, who were wonderfully inspiring and supportive), there were some moments that brought tears to our eyes. Maybe that will happen to the listeners, too. That would be nice.”