Sergio AZZOLINI | bassoon
Xenia LÖFFLER | oboe
Jana SEMERÁDOVÁ | flauto traverso
Lenka TORGERSEN | violin
Vojtěch SEMERÁD | viola d’amour
COLLEGIUM MARIANUM
Jana SEMERÁDOVÁ | artistic director

 

The Baroque composer František Jiránek (1698–1778), nicknamed the “Czech Vivaldi”, served as a violinist of Václav Morzin’s court orchestra. Having only discovered his music a few years ago, researchers are now identifying his works, as the authorship of some of them is still unclear, with some sources ascribing them to Jiránek and others to Vivaldi, his teacher in Venice. Jiránek’s music has also enjoyed growing interest on the part of musicians.

Besides Jana Semerádová’s Co­llegium Marianum, its champions include the brilliant Italian bassoonist Sergio Azzolini and the superlative German oboist Xenia Löffler. All the ambiguities as to its origin and a few specific requirements (for instance, employment of the viola d’amour, a scarcely used instrument, in the Triple Concerto in A major) notwithstanding, the CD features vivid, ebullient and virtuoso music, pieces previously unrecorded and performed in a top-notch way.

 

Press Review

Gramophone 03/2017

Sergio Azzolini, who has reconstructed the concluding ritornello for this incomplete concerto, is the outstanding soloist, while Collegium Marianum, under their artistic director Jana Semerádová, play with punch and attention to detail.

 

Audio samples at Supraphonline

 

Recorded in the Chapel Korunní, Prague, April 25, 26 and 28, 2016.
Recording director: Jiří Gemrot; sound engineer: Aleš Dvořák

October 2016, SU 4208-2