Vítězslava Kaprálová:
The Completed Orchestral Works

This double album presents all complete works for orchestra composed and orchestrated by Vitezslava Kapralova. CD1 presents Kaprálová’s Military Sinfonietta and Suita rustica for symphony orchestra, together with the Suite en miniature and the Prélude de Noël for chamber orchestra. The disc also features Waving Farewell for soprano and orchestra and the world premiere recording of Kaprálová’s Fanfare for brass instruments and timpani. CD2 presents Partita for strings and piano and the early Piano Concerto in D Minor. It also includes, as a bonus track and for reference, a piano suite which Kapralova later orchestrated as Suite en miniature (available on CD1).

Vitezslava Kapralova (Brno, 24. 1. 1915–Montpellier, 16. 6. 1940) is one of the most remarkable composers of her generation. Despite the brevity of her creative life, which spanned only a decade, Kapralova managed to leave behind a relatively sizeable catalogue of many substantial works that include piano, chamber, orchestral, and vocal compositions.

Suite en miniature (1935) is an orchestrated four-movement piano suite from 1931, to which Kapralová returned during the first months of her composition studies with Vitezslav Novak at the Prague Conservatory. In terms of musical ideas, the two suites are identical. The suite’s instrumentation is interesting: the dark Praeludium, with its mystical and foreboding atmosphere, is scored for strings, while the contrasting lyrical Pastorale is scored for wind instruments; the gently melancholic Lullaby combines the winds with strings and a harp to which Kaprálová added a trumpet, timpani, triangle and cymbals in the final Menuetto, ending her composition in a lightened mood.

With Military Sinfonietta (1937), which became her best-known orchestral work, Kapralova successfully graduated from the Prague Conservatory Master School. She premiered the work with the Czech Philharmonic in 1937 in Prague, and in 1938 she presented it at the 16th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in London, conducting the BBC Orchestra.

Suita rustica (1938) was commissioned by the Universal Edition London. Kapralova worked on the score under a tight, one-month deadline. The themes of the three-movement suite are built on the melodies and rhythms of six folk songs and dances (each movement on two) that alternate in contrasting rhythm. In Suita rustica Kapralova came closest to her compositional ideal, Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka.

Originally a song for voice and piano, Waving Farewell (1937–1938) is not only the greatest song of Kapralova but also one of the most important Czech art songs of the twentieth century. Since it was composed just before her graduation from the Prague Conservatory in 1937, Vitezslav Nezval’s poem also conveyed Kapralova’s feelings about saying a goodbye to her studies, to “the most beautiful city of Prague” (as the dedication on the score reads), and to her beloved teacher Vitezslav Novak. She orchestrated the song a year later in Paris.

The miniature piece for chamber orchestra Prélude de Noël, or Christmas Prelude (1939), was commissioned by Radio Paris PTT for its Christmas show “Noël a Prague,” broadcast on 24 December 1939 to occupied Czechoslovakia.

Fanfare for two horns, two trumpets and timpani (1939) is Kapralova’s musical present for her father’s fiftieth birthday. The musical “salutation” forms a preamble to the letter to her father, dated in Paris on 23 March 1939, during the agonizing first days of the German occupation of Kaprálová’s homeland. This is the piece’s world premiere recording.

The neo-Baroque Partita for strings and piano (1939) represents a certain turning point in Kapralova’s musical thought. She arrived at the new sound by taking a different approach to the composition’s structure and the instrumentation in which the piano, rather than performing the typical role of a soloist, plays more of a percussive role as one of the members of the orchestra.

Kapralova composed the three-movement Piano Concerto in D Minor (1935) during the last year of her studies at the Brno Conservatory. The first movement in sonata form is still grounded in the romantic idiom. The second movement, unusually short and dominated by a dark melody, is in contrapuntal style. The last movement, in rondo form, already anticipates a new creative period that was to blossom during Kapralova’s studies at the Prague Conservatory. The Piano Concerto in D Minor convincingly displays the versatility of Kapralova’s musical talent, with its typical energy and passion, lyricism and intelligent humour, spontaneity but also discipline.

Kapralova composed her four-movement piano Suite (1931) at the Brno Conservatory over the course of the first two school years. (For its orchestral version, see CD1). In 1932, Kaprálová added Funeral March to the piece, and had it premiered under the title Five Piano Compositions. This is the first time the Suite has been recorded as a stand-alone composition.

Kaprálová: Suite en miniature, Op. 1 (Version for Orchestra)
I. Praeludium
II. Pastorale
III. Ukolébavka
IV. Menuetto

Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Op. 11

Kaprálová: Suita rustica, Op. 19
I. Allegro rustico
II. Lento
III. Allegro ma non troppo

Kaprálová: Sbohem a šáteček, Op. 14 (Version for Voice & Orchestra)

Kaprálová: Prélude de Noël

Kaprálová: Fanfare

Kaprálová: Partita, Op. 20
I. Allegro energico
II. Andantino
III. Presto

Kaprálová: Piano Concerto in D minor, Op. 7
I. Allegro entusiastico
II. Largo
III. Allegro

Kaprálová: Suite en miniature, Op. 1 (Version for Piano)
I. Maestoso
II. Cantabile – Moderato
III. Andante con moto
IV. Tempo di minuetto

Winner – Diapason d’Or prix
Shortlist – 2025 Gramophone Orchestral Award

“Alena Hron’s light touch manages to highlight sharp harmonies and sudden rhythmic shifts. Throughout the pieces, the musicians from Ostrava move from melancholy to enthusiasm and from darkness to light with extraordinary ease. They surpass by far the few rival recordings.” – Anne Ibos-Augé, Diapason

“In turns tempestuous and rhapsodic, eerie and excitable, the Piano Concerto is the most substantial piece here, though there is also a lot to enjoy in the likes of the boisterous Suita Rustica and charming Prélude de Noël.”
– BBC Music Magazine

“Her music almost always flows in a way that sounds utterly natural and right…The Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava play extremely well for [Hron]…these interpretations do full justice to Kaprálová’s art.”
– Gramophone