Dvorák’s Love Songs were drawn from his early composition Cypresses, a set of 18 songs set to the poetry of Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky. The texts are pretty much typical of 19th century love poems, while Dvorák’s music is surprisingly commonplace for a composer of such rich melodic gifts. The first few measures of New Miniatures instantly identify them as being written by Martinu, with their spiky harmonies and syncopated rhythms. Indeed, it’s these rarely heard songs that take up the majority of this disc, a fortunate thing for us and for this strangely underperformed major 20th-century composer. His songs venture beyond the topic of love and turn up a few surprises, such as Lullaby, in which a black woman in Tennessee consoles her young son as he cries because “he was not white”, a subject that seems as far removed from Martinu’s native land as we can imagine.
Those familiar with Janácek’s operas should not expect to find the same far-flung style in his set called Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs, which as the title indicates are arrangements, albeit highly original ones. The disc closes with Dvorák’s In Folk Tone, considered one of his finest works. Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená has done a great service in bringing this wonderful music to light, some of it, as with Martinu’s Melodies, for the first time. She imbues these songs with an understanding and character that perhaps only a native Czech can, and sings with a wonderfully fresh and beautiful tone throughout all 42 selections. Kožená also has the benefit of Graham Johnson’s idiomatic accompaniments which reflect his profound affinity for Czech music, and it’s all captured in DG’s excellent sound. In her CD booklet note Kožená says that her first thought in compiling this album was giving pleasure to Czech listeners. She has done so for all of us. [10/21/2000]
