DIAPASON D'OR DE L'ANNÉE

Petr Popelka, chief conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker, ranks among the world's elite of conductors and guest conducts leading European and American orchestras and famous opera houses. At the end of last year, he released a triple album with Supraphon featuring the complete symphonic works of Bedřich Smetana, which he recorded with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. This exceptional recording immediately received extraordinary acclaim from foreign critics (The Times, The Guardian, Fono Forum, etc.), and the renowned British music magazine Gramophone selected the album as its Editor's Choice. Now this album has won another prestigious award in the symphonic music category, as the French music magazine Diapason selected it as one of the 15 best recordings of the year!

The triple album features also contains String Quartet No. 1, “From My Life”, hailing from Smetana’s mature period, when the composer was completely deaf, in George Szell’s brilliant orchestration. In contrast, Smetana’s early music is represented by the Festive Symphony, dedicated to the wedding of the 24-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I to Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria, and three “Swedish” Liszt-inspired symphonic poems, based on dramas as immense as Shakespeare’s Richard III and Schiller’s Wallenstein. In Smetana's Má vlast, which is also available in Dolby Atmos format and will be released on vinyl next spring, Petr Popelka's combination of musicality and uncompromising attention to detail enabled him to shape the orchestra into something truly exceptional.

Matouš Vlčinský, chief producer of classical music at Supraphon, commented on the news from France: "When I wrote to Petr Popelka about the award for the album Má vlast, he was very happy and shared his feeling that it was a kind of return on all the work and love they had invested in the recording. I remember the amazing energy during the recording and how the orchestra and the recording team carefully shaped every detail, and I am thrilled that all of this can be heard in the result and that, after Gramophone magazine, the recording has also received such high praise in France."

The Diapason d’Or de l’Année is a prestigious award, the most important in the French-speaking world, presented by a jury composed of critics from Diapason magazine and France Musique radio station. The award ceremony will take place on January 16, 2026, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, attended by René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio, and representatives of the Supraphon label.