Pavol Breslik & Robert Pechanec - Dvořák: Songs - Cypresses, Evening Songs, Gypsy Songs (2017)

Imagine a young lad in love that is what the piece is about! This is how Dvorák himself characterised The Cypresses, a work he composed at the age of twenty-three when he fell for the young actress Josefina ermáková (who was later to become his sister-in-law). Regardless of the fact that it is a juvenile and in many ways imperfect composition, Dvorák kept returning to it, exploiting its motives as material for his later opuses. For his Evening Songs written at a more mature stage of his professional career, he chose equally yearning verses by Czech poet Vítizslav Hálek. Even the poetry of Adolf Heyduk that served as a model for the Gypsy Songs features motives of love, although in a broader sense involving the love of music, nature and freedom. The wife of the famous virtuoso Joseph Joachim took Songs My Mother Taught Me to her heart and the song later became one of Dvorák true hits worldwide. Pavol Breslik is an outstanding tenor invited by most prominent opera houses and concert halls (MET, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Berlin) and besides operatic works, he focuses on song repertoire. After Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin he took a fancy to Dvorák's songs and, accompanied flawlessly by Robert Pechanec, imprinted all of his passion into the present recording.Recorded at the St Laurentius Church, Lesser Town of Prague,August 3 5, 2016.

TRACKLIST
01. Cypresses, B. 11: I. You Ardent Songs
02. Cypresses, B. 11: II. In That Sweet Power of Your Eyes
03. Cypresses, B. 11: III. So Many a Heart Is as Though Dead
04. Cypresses, B. 11: IV. Oh Dear Soul
05. Cypresses, B. 11: V. Oh, It Was a Lovely, Golden Dream
06. Cypresses, B. 11: VI. I Know That in Sweet Hope
07. Cypresses, B. 11: VII. Oh Golden Rose
08. Cypresses, B. 11: VIII. Oh, That Longed-for Happiness
09. Cypresses, B. 11: IX. Around the House Now I Stagger
10. Cypresses, B. 11: X. Doubt Often Torments Me
11. Cypresses, B. 11: XI. My Heart Often Broods in Unhappiness
12. Cypresses, B. 11: XII. Here I Look Upon This Dear Letter
13. Cypresses, B. 11: 13. On the Mountains Quiet
14. Cypresses, B. 11: 14. Here in the Forest by a Brook
15. Cypresses, B. 11: 15. Pensively Through My Whole Soul
16. Cypresses, B. 11: 16. There Stands an Old Crag
17. Cypresses, B. 11: 17. Over the Countryside Reigns a Light Sleep
18. Cypresses, B. 11: 18. You Ask Why My Songs Rage
19. Evening Songs, Op. 31, B. 61: I. When I Was Looking to the Sky
20. Evening Songs, Op. 31, B. 61: II. You Little, Tiny Birds
21. Evening Songs, Op. 31, B. 61: III. I Am Like a Lavish Linden Tree
22. Evening Songs, Op. 31, B. 61: IV. All Ye Who Are Oppressed
23. Evening Songs, Op. 31, B. 61: V. A Bird Sings Many a Song
24. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: I. My Song Rings Out with Love Again - Moderato
25. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: II. Hey! How My Triangle Rings Out so Sweetly - Allegro
26. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: III. The Woods Are Silent All Around - Moderato
27. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: IV. Songs My Mother Tought Me - Andante con moto
28. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: V. The String Is Tuned - Allegretto
29. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: VI. Wide Sleeves - Pocco allegro
30. Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, B. 104: VII. Give the Hawk a Cage - Allegro