Víteslava Kaprálová was a rising star in the 1930s. She was chosen to represent Czechoslovakia at the 1938 ISCM Festival for new music in London, where her compositions were presented alongside those of Bartók, Britten, Copland, Hindemith, and other VIPs of the twentieth century. A close associate of Bohuslav Martinu, she combined the best of Czech modernism with elements of French impressionism to form a highly individual and appealing style. Her death from miliary tuberculosis in 1940 put a premature end to what would likely have been a spectacular career.
Anyone looking for an introduction to Kaprálová's music should start with this insightful recording by soprano Dana Burešová and pianist Timothy Cheek. As the first major release devoted to Kaprálová, it wisely focuses on her most distinctive genre of composition -- her songs for voice and piano. It is essentially a complete collection, leaving aside only juvenilia, occasional works, and one song that does not yet exist in a performable edition. By turn melancholy, joyful, and contemplative, the songs reveal an astonishingly mature style for such a young composer, and an ability to distill sentiment into musical form with deceptive ease. The natural inflections of the Czech language overlay sparkling piano textures that often bring Maurice Ravel to mind, with fleeting hints of Stravinsky and Kaprálová's Czech contemporaries -- although the end result is unmistakably her own.
Burešová sings these songs with obvious affection, bell-like tone, and a subtle sense of inflection. Cheek strikes just the right balance between clarity and warmth in the piano, allowing the rich, sometimes piquant, harmonies to linger without muddying the texture. Together they create the kind of partnership that is essential to chamber music of any kind, but especially songs, where mood, tempo, and color are concentrated into short forms. Magda Cáslavová (flute), Petr Zdvihal, Jan Valta, and David Havelí (members of the Herold Quartet) are also excellent. This is a highly recommendable recording, both as a document of Kaprálová's music and as a collection of songs in its own right. It is clearly a labor of love by all involved, and all the more enjoyable for it.