I first came across the music of Pavel Haas while researching the links between the Czech composers and their students. This line of enquiry led me from Leoš Janáček to Pavel Haas, one of his most significant and original students.

From the very first moment Haas’s music has mesmerised me: it was an exciting discovery and a wonderful challenge. The unique fusion of the local Moravian folklore influences, of jazz and film music of his time ( his brother Hugo Haas was one of the most popular actors in the pre-war Czechoslovakia ), with the echoes of the synagogue chants, which he heard as a child when visiting his uncle, a Jewish community cantor, as well as Haas’s intricate work with harmonic and rhythmic  patterns, and the formative influence of his composition teacher Janáček: all these factors united in a highly original musical language of great coherence, depth and wit. While Haas’s music captures the zeitgeist of his era, its roots reach deep into the Czech musical tradition, where the ancient Saint Wenceslas choral resonates, rousing the Czech nation to courage in the times of hardship.

My interest further led me to Haas’s daughter, Olga Haasová-Smrčková. Meeting this remarkable lady, the closest living relative of the composer, provided another impulse and inspiration for my work. Her wit and energy, regardless of her advanced age and frail health, her inner fire and inner strength made me think of what her father would have been like. It is an unspeakable tragedy that his life has been so cruelly cut in its prime, and one can but ponder on what another masterpieces Pavel Haas could have had composed. But we are fortunate to have the music he’s left us, which speaks on his behalf.

The ambition behind this album is double: to share the exquisite song cycles by Pavel Haas, and to present, for the first time, the magic of his Fata Morgana to the wider audience, but it is also to inspire others to get hold of the music, to study it, and make it a regular part of the repertoire on records and concert platforms. The legacy of Pavel Haas deserves that, and more.

Artists on the album:

Nicky Spence tenor

James Platt bass

Anita Watson soprano

Anna Starushkevych mezzo soprano

Navarra Quartet

Lada Valešová

piano & artistic director

What is Dumka?

I have often pondered on a definition of Slavic Soul in music. What makes us recognise that particular mode from the others? Why does it tuck on our hear strings the way it does? My contemplations let me to the music form of Dumka, with its etymological root “ duma “ : “ a thought”.  The more research I did, the more magical Dumkas for piano I kept discovering, some well know and some less so. While all of them stay true to their form with lyrical, bitter-sweet longing, arching melodies and sometimes dance-like middle parts, each of them is also distinctly different with varying hues of moods and colours. The music captures these subtleties effortlessly, but it is more difficult to put into words their essence, which I feel so acutely and personally. For me each Dumka evokes different association: Russian autumnal landscape in contrast with the fiery Russian dance in Tchaikovsky, flow of bitter-sweet memories without any feel of despair in Dvorak, teardrops followed by recollection of happier days, resolved in peaceful acceptance in Suk, winter evening by the fireplace, while the snowdrops dance behind the window in Balakirev, Hungarian visitor being inspired by the tuneful Ukranian songs in Liszt, a young, witty and charming cosmopolitan Czech in Martinu. And as a father figure stands Mikola Lysenko, who merges the virtuosity of his age with folk roots of his homeland in perfect symbiosis. Saying that, you, my listener, might completely disagree with me, and that would also be wonderful, as my aim is to take you on a journey, display different landscapes, evoke different moods and memories, and spike your curiosity about this compact word Dumka, and what lies behind it.

Lada Valešová

“Intimate Studies” is the innovative debut release from Czech pianist Lada Valešová who has developed a fresh and intriguing programme of works that link both teacher and student alike during the early part of the 20th century.. The CD features 20th century piano music composed by four of her native country’s leading composers: “In the Mist” (Janáček), “Suite for Piano Op.13” and “Allegro Moderato” (Haas), “Film en Miniature H.148” (Martinů) and “Spring Op.22a” (Suk).

However, of particular note is the performance of a rare collection of eleven tone poems and studies, some complete miniature works, some unfinished kernels of ideas written by Janacek under the collected title: “Intimate Studies”.

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