Doležal Quartet, Michaela Hrabánková
Mysliveček: Oboe Quintets, String Quartets
Catalogue Number: SU 4289-2
Published: 9th October 2020
Genre: Chamber Music
Format: 1 CD
Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781) - Oboe Quintets - No. 1, in B flat major; No. 2, in D major; No. 3, in F major; String Quartets - in F major and A major, Op. 3; String Quartet No. 22, in G major, Op. posth. No. 5
Michaela Hrabánková - oboe, Doležal Quartet: Václav Dvořák - 1st violin, Jan Zrostlík - 2nd violin, Martin Adamovič - viola, Vojtěch Urban - cello
Josef Mysliveček has most frequently been mentioned in connection with W. A. Mozart (who, for a certain time, viewed him as a model and inspiration) and is best known for his operas. At the age of 26, he left Prague for Italy, where four years later, in Naples, he celebrated his first triumph, with the opera Il Bellerofonte (1767). A prolific and gifted composer, Mysliveček also wrote instrumental music, including symphonies and chamber pieces. His first cycle of string quartets was published in Paris in 1768, the final one in Amsterdam, shortly after his death. These works were often performed in extended formations as symphonies. Mysliveček's quartets are characterised by wonderfully refined slow middle movements. Even more unique are his oboe quintets. For a long time, they were only known owing to Leopold Mozart's reference to them in a letter to his son Wolfgang, dated October 1777 - Mysliveček wanted Leopold Mozart to offer his quintets and other pieces to the Archbishop of Salzburg. Only due to the initiative of the performers featured on this album, primarily the oboist Michaela Hrabánková and Václav Dvořák, the first violinist of the Doležal Quartet, have the missing oboe parts for three of the six quintets been retrieved in private collections across Europe. The CD thus contains world premiere recordings of rediscovered Mysliveček works, whose significance is further enhanced by a stylistically sensitive interpretation. Our picture of "Il divino Boemo", whom the renowned music historian Charles Burney ranked alongside such masters as Hasse, Gluck and Haydn, is now more complete - and more beautiful.
Previously unheard Mysliveček: newly rediscovered oboe quintets
Reviews
“Michaela Hrabánková plays with a lyrical delicacy that gives this music
a certain refinement. Equally appealing are the three string quartets performed
by the Doležal Quartet. The ensemble has natural chemistry to it. The quartet
sound (as they should), like a conversation between four good friends. For
anyone who enjoys the chamber music of Mozart and Haydn, give this disc a
listen.”
WTJU 91.1 FM University of Virginia, November 2020