BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice December 2020

BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice May 2019

Disc du Jour – the 29th May 2019
France Musique

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE AWARDS 2017
Chamber music record

 

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The Smetana Trio is today one of the foremost Czech ensembles and, with cellist Jan Palenicek, continues the tradition of the renowned piano trio founded in the 1930s by his father, pianist Josef Palenicek. 

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The trio performs throughout the Czech Republic with regular tours to USA, Japan, Britain, France, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. They also collaborate frequently with international orchestras.

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Jan Páleníček - cello - studied with two of the greatest Czech cellists of their generation, Sasa Vectomov and Milos Sadlo. He studied chamber music with Joseph Vlach, leader of the Vlach Quartet and Paul Tortellier. Jan has given concerto and chamber performances throughout Europe as well as in Japan, USA and South Africa and he has recorded over twenty four CDs. He has taught at the Conservatoire and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

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Jan Talich - violin - is known nowadays an exceptional figure not only on the Czech cultural scene, but also internationally recognised. In his rich career he is able to connect, at the highest level, his knowledge and experiences of several professions. He performs as a soloist, chamber player, conductor and pedagogue the world-over.

His longest path has been that of his solo career. Whilst still at the Prague Academy he won the both national and international competitions (Zagreb 89). These helped him begin his solo career, which lasts until today. He has performed with piano partners such as Itamar Golan, Gottlieb Wallish, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Jean Bernard Pommier.
 

For five years he was a member of the Kubelík Trio, with whom he recorded the complete Czech writings for piano trio. He left to take up the post of first violinist of the Talich Quartet.
The quartet, founded by his father in the year 1964, is one of the world’s best ensembles. During the 20 years of his time in the quartet they have performed regularly in the best concert halls of the world and have recorded tens of CDs.

Jan Talich plays the extraordinary violins made by J. Gagliano in 1780 and by G. P. Maggini in 1600.

 

Jitka Čechová - piano - is a major international prize-winner and has a solo career, enjoying regular appearances with orchestras throughout Europe. Festival engagements include the Prague Spring, Graz, Paris, Frankfurt and Edinburgh. For Jitka Cechova, chamber music is one of the essential elements of her musical identity. Jitka has also made a number of recordings including the complete piano works of Smetana as a series of seven CDs for Supraphon. 

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