Janácek, Leos - Choral Works - Cappella Amsterdam

---

---

Dirk Luijmes, harmonium
Philip Mayers, piano
Thomas Walker, tenor
Ernestine Stoop, harp

Cappella Amsterdam / Daniel Reuss

Janácek's choral works draw on an extremely rich repertory of folksongs and folk tales. The composer seized on idioms from Bohemian and Moravian traditions, with their characteristic folk dances and rustic nursery rhymes, and on the recently published 'Moravian Duets' of his compatriot Antonín Dvorák, to convey a mixture of emotions, forever shifting between cheerfulness and melancholy, like his subdued harmonies. Here we witness the birth of a musical language which, though deliberately rooted in central Europe, has projected for nearly a century the aura of a universal sentiment.

The professional chamber choir Cappella Amsterdam was founded in 1970. Over the years, under the direction of Daniel Reuss, it has built up a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works with a special focus on promoting Dutch music of today.