Catalogue | Voice

With this reissue of a 1986 recording, works of the important Czech humanist and composer Jan Novák are being made known to a wider public in Germany for the first time. Both compositions are based on texts of the ancient poet Virgil. In DIDO he depicts the torture of an unfulfilled love ending in suicide. Contrasting with this, Mimus Magicus is the drastically depicted love-magic of a Roman woman who knows very well how to help herself in earthly life. Rafael Kubelik, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the soloist Marilyn Schmiege allow these ancient worlds to be graphically resurrected with a combination of precision and vitality in music making.

• American Record Guide | Charles H. Parsons | January 9, 2001

  The Czech composer Jan Novak (1921-84) was deeply interested in Latin literature and poetry. For him Latin was still a living language, and he even...

• Das Orchester | Peter Baier | January 6, 2000

  Der tschechische Komponist Jan Novák (1921-1984) ist einer der wichtigsten...

• Fono Forum | Matthias Norquet | January 10, 1999

  Möglicherweise rehabilitiert
  Er lebte und komponierte für die lateinische Sprache. Jan Noväk (nicht zu verwechseln mit seinem ein halbes Jahrhundert früher geborenen...

• Stereoplay | Martin Mezger | August 15, 1999

  Neunzehnhundertvierundachtizig starb in Neu-Ulm ein alter Römer namens Jan...

• www.classicalcdreview.com | S.G.S. | January 7, 2001

  I acquired this disc under the mistaken impression that the composer was Jan Witoslav Novák (1870-1949), but apparently there are as many Jan Nováks...