Dvořák - Saint Ludmila / Remastered (Century's record.: Václav Smetáček, Prague Orchestra & Choir)

Album available // Dvořák: Saint Ludmila, Op. 71 by Václav Smetáček
🎧 Qobuz (Hi-Res) bit.ly/3UuY9EO Tidal (Hi-Res) bit.ly/3WqLeGt
🎧 Apple Music (Lossless) apple.co/44ysp61 Deezer (Hi-Fi) bit.ly/3wnKN5c
🎧 Amazon Music (Hi-Res) amzn.to/3QBqMPg Spotify (mp3) spoti.fi/4dIAcTl
🎧 RUclips Music (mp4) bit.ly/3y6R31E
🎧 Napster, Pandora, Anghami, Soundcloud, QQ音乐, LineMusic, Awa 日本…
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) Dvořák: Saint Ludmila, Op. 71
**Complete list of tracks on youtube music and the main streaming music platforms.**
00:00 Part I (Courtyard of the Castle of Mělník. In the middle a large golden statue of the goddess Bába. Noble, priests and people): Tmy vrátily se v skrýše skal a lesů: The dusk departs to gloomy caves and forests
09:36 Květy, jimiž Vesna vábí: Blossoms, with which Spring allures us (Chorus of People)
27:30 Od dětství ku oltáři mne vodil svatý cit: When young it was the altar I ever held most dear (Soprano Aria: Ludmila)
44:37 Kdo onen muž, jejž nestih's nebe blesk?: What man is this whom lightening will not fell?
1:05:15 Part II (In the woods near Beroun. In the background a hollow rock with Ivan’s hermitage): Ó, v jaké šeré lesní stíny: Oh, in the fearful forest shadows (Introduction, Recitative & Contralto Aria: Svatava)
1:26:14 Ó jaký obraz oku mému se v stínu lesním otvírá!: Oh, what a sight there in the shadows, and one that causes me to fear! (Tenor & Chorus: Bořivoj)
1:31:24 Ó neklamu se, chápu juž: I think, the truth I now infer (Chorus)
1:50:13 Part III (The Cathedral of Velehrad. Baptism of Bořivoj and Ludmila. Priests, nobles and people): Hospodine, pomiluj ny!: Mighty Lord, have mercy on us! (Introduction & Chorus)
2:06:28 Ó zněte písně, zněte k nebes báni: Now let the heavens echo with our anthem (Contralto & Bass duet with Chorus: Svatava & Ivan)
**Complete list of tracks on youtube music and the main streaming music platforms.**
(Czech)
Saint Ludmila (Soprano): Eva Zikmundová
Svatava , her companion (contralto): Věra Soukupová
Bořivoj (tenor): Beno Blachut
A Husbandman (tenor): Vladimír Krejčík
Saint Ivan (bass): Richard Novák
Prague (Czech) Philharmonic Choir
Chorus Master: Josef Veselka
Prague Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Václav Smetáček
Recorded in 1963, at Prague
New mastering in 2023 by AB for CMRR
Large-scale full-length vocal works with orchestra occupy a special place in the output of Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). The major source of his world-wide renown lay elsewhere: namely, in the domain of orchestral production. Dvořák's concertos and symphonies have remained staple items of the international repertoire. Apart from them, equally high prestige has been enjoyed by a duo of outstanding sacred works: the Stabat Mater and Requiem. Still in Dvořák's lifetime, another two vocal compositions, in which he used texts by leading Czech poets, brought him similar success at home: They were the cantata The Spectre's Bride (on the poem of Karel Jaromír Erben), and the oratorio St.Ludmila (based on Jaroslav Vrchlický's poem). Perhaps the specifically Czech subjects of these two pieces underlie the fact that in terms of international popularity they have somewhat lagged behind the above-listed sacred works. And yet they are true masterpieces containing all the ingredients of Dvorák's compositional art and his profound, if outwardly simple, philosophy of life and faith.
This particular recording is the first ever made of the work, and makes available one of the very best creations of prominent Czech conductor Václav Smetáček whose readings of that part of Dvořák's legacy won him wide acclaim…
**COMPLETE PRESENTATION: LOOK THE FIRST PINNED COMMENT**
Album available // Dvořák: Requiem Op. 89 Karel Ančerl
🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3AF1qp8 Tidal bit.ly/3BJzEsJ
🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3v9LUjV Deezer bit.ly/2Z5kakx
🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/2X9524O Spotify spoti.fi/3p163Yl
🎧 Napster bit.ly/3p58TLP RUclips Music bit.ly/44wxMBs
🎧 Napster, Pandora, Anghami, Soundcloud, QQ音乐, LineMusic, Awa 日本…
Antonín Dvořák PLAYLIST (reference recordings): • Antonín Dvořák (1841-1...

[@classicalmusicreference]

Album available // Dvořák: Saint Ludmila, Op. 71 by Václav Smetáček
🎧 Qobuz (Hi-Res) bit.ly/3UuY9EO Tidal (Hi-Res) bit.ly/3WqLeGt
🎧 Apple Music (Lossless) apple.co/44ysp61 Deezer (Hi-Fi) bit.ly/3wnKN5c
🎧 Amazon Music (Hi-Res) amzn.to/3QBqMPg Spotify (mp3) spoti.fi/4dIAcTl
🎧 RUclips Music (mp4) bit.ly/3y6R31E
🎧 Napster, Pandora, Anghami, Soundcloud, QQ音乐, LineMusic, Awa 日本…
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) Dvořák: Saint Ludmila, Op. 71
***Complete list of tracks on youtube music and the main streaming music platforms.***
00:00 Part I (Courtyard of the Castle of Mělník. In the middle a large golden statue of the goddess Bába. Noble, priests and people): Tmy vrátily se v skrýše skal a lesů: The dusk departs to gloomy caves and forests
09:36 Květy, jimiž Vesna vábí: Blossoms, with which Spring allures us (Chorus of People)
27:30 Od dětství ku oltáři mne vodil svatý cit: When young it was the altar I ever held most dear (Soprano Aria: Ludmila)
44:37 Kdo onen muž, jejž nestih's nebe blesk?: What man is this whom lightening will not fell?
1:05:15 Part II (In the woods near Beroun. In the background a hollow rock with Ivan’s hermitage): Ó, v jaké šeré lesní stíny: Oh, in the fearful forest shadows (Introduction, Recitative & Contralto Aria: Svatava)
1:26:14 Ó jaký obraz oku mému se v stínu lesním otvírá!: Oh, what a sight there in the shadows, and one that causes me to fear! (Tenor & Chorus: Bořivoj)
1:31:24 Ó neklamu se, chápu juž: I think, the truth I now infer (Chorus)
1:50:13 Part III (The Cathedral of Velehrad. Baptism of Bořivoj and Ludmila. Priests, nobles and people): Hospodine, pomiluj ny!: Mighty Lord, have mercy on us! (Introduction & Chorus)
2:06:28 Ó zněte písně, zněte k nebes báni: Now let the heavens echo with our anthem (Contralto & Bass duet with Chorus: Svatava & Ivan)
***Complete list of tracks on youtube music and the main streaming music platforms.***
Saint Ludmila (Soprano): Eva Zikmundová
Svatava , her companion (contralto): Věra Soukupová
Bořivoj (tenor): Beno Blachut
A Husbandman (tenor): Vladimír Krejčík
Saint Ivan (bass): Richard Novák
Prague (Czech) Philharmonic Choir
Chorus Master: Josef Veselka
Prague Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Václav Smetáček
Recorded in 1963, at Prague
New mastering in 2023 by AB for CMRR
Large-scale full-length vocal works with orchestra occupy a special place in the output of Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). The major source of his world-wide renown lay elsewhere: namely, in the domain of orchestral production. Dvořák's concertos and symphonies have remained staple items of the international repertoire. Apart from them, equally high prestige has been enjoyed by a duo of outstanding sacred works: the Stabat Mater and Requiem. Still in Dvořák's lifetime, another two vocal compositions, in which he used texts by leading Czech poets, brought him similar success at home: They were the cantata The Spectre's Bride (on the poem of Karel Jaromír Erben), and the oratorio St.Ludmila (based on Jaroslav Vrchlický's poem). Perhaps the specifically Czech subjects of these two pieces underlie the fact that in terms of international popularity they have somewhat lagged behind the above-listed sacred works. And yet they are true masterpieces containing all the ingredients of Dvorák's compositional art and his profound, if outwardly simple, philosophy of life and faith.
This particular recording is the first ever made of the work, and makes available one of the very best creations of prominent Czech conductor Václav Smetáček whose readings of that part of Dvořák's legacy won him wide acclaim…
Saint Ludmila, Op. 71 was written between 1885 and 1886, on a commission from England which was the consequence of a major success scored there by an 1883 production of the Stabat Mater. Now Dvořák was asked to supply a large-scale composition on a Czech theme. The text by Vrchlicky, though, an excellent poet in his own right a paean to the coming of Christianity to pagan Bohemia at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries, involved certain problems of style and language as regarded its musical setting. It was hardly surprising then that Dvořák at first chose to take up another subject, offered by Erben's romantic and drama-laden ballad, The Spectre's Bride. Only after its completion did he re- turn to work on the Vrchlicky theme. There, eventually, he produced his largest opus in that genre, and one of exceptional relevance, in terms of content and purely musical message alike. Its triumphant première took place at a festival in Leeds, on 15 October, 1886. The work was dedicated to the choral and instrumental society, Zerotin, of Olomouc, an ensemble which had performed a number of Dvořák's earlier compositions. Equally memorable was the oratorio's first home performance, at Prague's National Theatre, in February 1887.
Content-wise, the oratorio is divided into three parts. The first is located to Ludmila's castle at Mèlník, not far from Prague, and depicts the pagan era. In it, a ceremony of ancient rites and customs is vehemently interrupted by the priest Ivan who defies the old beliefs of the ignorant crowd and calls on them to adopt faith in one God. The charisma of his personality and teaching so appel to the youthful Ludmila that she goes to visit Ivan in his cave deep in the forests around Beroun (Part II). There she meets the Prince Borivoj and his attendants. The two young people fall in love with each other, a feeling which is still enhanced by their common wish to adopt Ivan's faith. Velehrad, in Moravia, the scene of Part II, is still today a place symbolizing the beginnings of Christianity in what was then Great Moravia, the empire where Byzantine missionaries from Salonica Constantine and Methodius had introduced the faith in 863. Thence it spread on, until eventually giving way to Western Christianity which prevailed in the country. The Byzantine mission's crucial relevance consisted in its contribution to the development of Slavic culture including notably the written form of language. At Velehrad, Ludmila and Borivoj, and with them allegoric hyperbole the entire Czech nation, receive baptism from lvan's hands, to the sounds of the ancient hymn Hospodine, pomiluj ny (Mighty Lord, Have Mercy on Us).
The work's overall concept bears some similarity to the operatic style (in fact, the oratorio has occasionally received stage productions), which is evident from some of the dialogues and recitatives. The same applies to the arias many of which are purely operatic. An important component, though one whose presence the operatic parallels perhaps make less ob- vous, are the oratorio's choral parts. Notwithstanding its ancient subject matter, the work as a whole is by no means inaccessible, offering several climactic pas- sages of ravishing vitality and dramatic charge. Rather than distant or static characters, its protagonists are human beings full of life, love and faith, reminiscent as it were of similar types in so many Czech operas. Dvorák endowed them with some splendid arias which are as convincing as anything in the operatic or lieder literature (cf. two arias of Ludmila, aria of Borivoj, their duet, etc.). As has been suggested above, though, what truly crowns the work are the choruses. As early on as Part I pagan songs strike an exceptionally colourful note which involves characteristic Dvořákian vigour. A most interesting treatment is reserved for the paraphrase of the already mentioned old hymn, Mighty Lord, Have Mercy on Us, documentedly the earliest surviving Czech song which was performed on historic occasions including the coronations of Bohemia's Kings. While St. Ludmila cites the text of the old hymn, the melody here was supplied completely by Dvorák. It delivers a message of amazing serenity. The oratorio is closed by a magnificent polyphonic finale.
Album available // Dvořák: Requiem Op. 89 Karel Ančerl
🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3AF1qp8 Tidal bit.ly/3BJzEsJ
🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3v9LUjV Deezer bit.ly/2Z5kakx
🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/2X9524O Spotify spoti.fi/3p163Yl
🎧 Napster bit.ly/3p58TLP RUclips Music bit.ly/44wxMBs
🎧 Napster, Pandora, Anghami, Soundcloud, QQ音乐, LineMusic, Awa 日本…
Antonín Dvořák PLAYLIST (reference recordings): ruclips.net/p/PL3UZpQL9LIxOmR1pAUFUL-0JK-EcbVFUG

[@melindalemmon2149]

o my goodness. He NEVER EVER disappoints!!!

[@estherbreslau6075]

I had never come across this work. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for having it. With the possible exception of Humoresque, I have never heard a work of Dvorak that I didn't love. This is no exception. I expect I will be listening to it for the next few days until it is part of my mental repertoire.

[@classicalmusicreference]

Large-scale full-length vocal works with orchestra occupy a special place in the output of Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). The major source of his world-wide renown lay elsewhere: namely, in the domain of orchestral production. Dvořák's concertos and symphonies have remained staple items of the international repertoire. Apart from them, equally high prestige has been enjoyed by a duo of outstanding sacred works: the Stabat Mater and Requiem. Still in Dvořák's lifetime, another two vocal compositions, in which he used texts by leading Czech poets, brought him similar success at home: They were the cantata The Spectre's Bride (on the poem of Karel Jaromír Erben), and the oratorio St.Ludmila (based on Jaroslav Vrchlický's poem). Perhaps the specifically Czech subjects of these two pieces underlie the fact that in terms of international popularity they have somewhat lagged behind the above-listed sacred works. And yet they are true masterpieces containing all the ingredients of Dvorák's compositional art and his profound, if outwardly simple, philosophy of life and faith.
This particular recording is the first ever made of the work, and makes available one of the very best creations of prominent Czech conductor Václav Smetáček whose readings of that part of Dvořák's legacy won him wide acclaim…
Saint Ludmila, Op. 71 was written between 1885 and 1886, on a commission from England which was the consequence of a major success scored there by an 1883 production of the Stabat Mater. Now Dvořák was asked to supply a large-scale composition on a Czech theme. The text by Vrchlicky, though, an excellent poet in his own right a paean to the coming of Christianity to pagan Bohemia at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries, involved certain problems of style and language as regarded its musical setting. It was hardly surprising then that Dvořák at first chose to take up another subject, offered by Erben's romantic and drama-laden ballad, The Spectre's Bride. Only after its completion did he re- turn to work on the Vrchlicky theme. There, eventually, he produced his largest opus in that genre, and one of exceptional relevance, in terms of content and purely musical message alike. Its triumphant première took place at a festival in Leeds, on 15 October, 1886. The work was dedicated to the choral and instrumental society, Zerotin, of Olomouc, an ensemble which had performed a number of Dvořák's earlier compositions. Equally memorable was the oratorio's first home performance, at Prague's National Theatre, in February 1887.
Content-wise, the oratorio is divided into three parts. The first is located to Ludmila's castle at Mèlník, not far from Prague, and depicts the pagan era. In it, a ceremony of ancient rites and customs is vehemently interrupted by the priest Ivan who defies the old beliefs of the ignorant crowd and calls on them to adopt faith in one God. The charisma of his personality and teaching so appel to the youthful Ludmila that she goes to visit Ivan in his cave deep in the forests around Beroun (Part II). There she meets the Prince Borivoj and his attendants. The two young people fall in love with each other, a feeling which is still enhanced by their common wish to adopt Ivan's faith. Velehrad, in Moravia, the scene of Part II, is still today a place symbolizing the beginnings of Christianity in what was then Great Moravia, the empire where Byzantine missionaries from Salonica Constantine and Methodius had introduced the faith in 863. Thence it spread on, until eventually giving way to Western Christianity which prevailed in the country. The Byzantine mission's crucial relevance consisted in its contribution to the development of Slavic culture including notably the written form of language. At Velehrad, Ludmila and Borivoj, and with them allegoric hyperbole the entire Czech nation, receive baptism from lvan's hands, to the sounds of the ancient hymn Hospodine, pomiluj ny (Mighty Lord, Have Mercy on Us).
The work's overall concept bears some similarity to the operatic style (in fact, the oratorio has occasionally received stage productions), which is evident from some of the dialogues and recitatives. The same applies to the arias many of which are purely operatic. An important component, though one whose presence the operatic parallels perhaps make less ob- vous, are the oratorio's choral parts. Notwithstanding its ancient subject matter, the work as a whole is by no means inaccessible, offering several climactic pas- sages of ravishing vitality and dramatic charge. Rather than distant or static characters, its protagonists are human beings full of life, love and faith, reminiscent as it were of similar types in so many Czech operas. Dvorák endowed them with some splendid arias which are as convincing as anything in the operatic or lieder literature (cf. two arias of Ludmila, aria of Borivoj, their duet, etc.). As has been suggested above, though, what truly crowns the work are the choruses. As early on as Part I pagan songs strike an exceptionally colourful note which involves characteristic Dvořákian vigour. A most interesting treatment is reserved for the paraphrase of the already mentioned old hymn, Mighty Lord, Have Mercy on Us, documentedly the earliest surviving Czech song which was performed on historic occasions including the coronations of Bohemia's Kings. While St. Ludmila cites the text of the old hymn, the melody here was supplied completely by Dvorák. It delivers a message of amazing serenity. The oratorio is closed by a magnificent polyphonic finale.
Album available // Dvořák: Requiem Op. 89 Karel Ančerl
🎧 Qobuz bit.ly/3AF1qp8 Tidal bit.ly/3BJzEsJ
🎧 Apple Music apple.co/3v9LUjV Deezer bit.ly/2Z5kakx
🎧 Amazon Music amzn.to/2X9524O Spotify spoti.fi/3p163Yl
🎧 Napster bit.ly/3p58TLP RUclips Music bit.ly/44wxMBs
🎧 Napster, Pandora, Anghami, Soundcloud, QQ音乐, LineMusic, Awa 日本…

[@fulgenjbatista4640]

❤

[@mariainesdeandradealcantar3263]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@chrisfinlay3274]

I think you'd have to add Rusalka to the list of outstanding vocal works. Thanks for this great post.

[@classicalmusicreference]

Yes, you're right, we're talking about "sacred" repertoire here, but Rusalka is an opera. We have published it in what is undoubtedly its most beautiful version: ruclips.net/video/ZbtGdrRNhF4/видео.html

[@chrisfinlay3274]

@@classicalmusicreference thanks

[@James-ll3jb]

{ Dvořák, St. Ludmila, Op. 71, Part I. (0:00-9:36) [1876] }
ruclips.net/video/XI5Jsheka40/видео.html