Janáček: Sinfonietta & Taras Bulba by Karel Ančerl (2026 Remastered, Prague 1961)

A powerful and highly individual temperament, Janáček united in his work the national-romantic traditions with the achievements of a modern musical language whose richness and freshness make him the dominant figure of Czech music at the beginning of the 20th century. Written in 1926, two years before the composer’s death, the Sinfonietta breathes a remarkable freshness and youthful spirit for a man of seventy-two; it has also remained his most popular symphonic work. This inspired, bubbling composition, with its indomitable freedom of tone and rhythm, places great demands on the brass section. Karel Ančerl’s version stands at the top of the discography. One immediately recognizes his incomparable sense of dramatic staging, natural rhythm, and his way of serving Janáček’s prodigious vitality while maintaining a perfect balance.

Taras Bulba is a symphonic poem in three parts, inspired by Gogol’s novel. Janáček selected the three most dramatic moments of Gogol’s work: the deaths of Taras’s two sons (Andrei, who betrays his people out of love for a young Polish woman and is killed by his own father; Ostap, captured by the Poles and publicly tortured); and finally the death of Taras himself, who is in turn captured and burned alive. Karel Ančerl’s interpretation remains unsurpassed. No one better than he has succeeded in bringing together the epic dimension of Gogol’s narrative with the fervent love that he and his sons bore for their homeland.

This remastering allows the recording to regain a second youth. The soundstage and the clarity of each orchestral section are exceptional. An audiophile gem.