Parallel Worlds
JAN JIRÁSEK
JITRO Czech Girls Choir | JIŘÍ SKOPAL conductor
OVERVIEW
With PARALLEL WORLDS, Czech composer Jan Jirásek provides a portal into his intricately textured and resonant choral music. These works are enhanced by Czech children’s choir JITRO, whose singers imbibe Jirásek’s delicate and earnest compositions with authority, maturity, and captivating grace.
A varied collection of Jirásek’s sacred and secular choral music, PARALLEL WORLDS reveals the composer’s affinity for non-traditional sounds, as well as vocal forms rooted in Renaissance and Medieval traditions. These subtle, period-based influences are most evident in the nuances of compositions such as works like Missa Propria that evoke the voice-leading techniques of Italian Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo.
Most obvious of these subtleties is Jirásek’s contrast of polyphony and monophony in Missa Propria and Si, Vis, Amari, Ama, which use chant-like melodies scored for the entire choir. These moments strongly recall the structural role of Gregorian chant in Medieval, Renaissance, and even later musical settings of the mass text.
King Lávra presents a subtler allusion to earlier eras of choral music, as its dramatic scoring recalls the Medieval genre of the liturgical drama. This composition is also one of several works on this album to feature atypical sounds, including percussive vocal sounds ranging from spoken text to individual isolated consonants. Jirásek’s use of a pair of scissors as a percussion instrument on King Lávra is a brilliant and wholly unpredictable reinterpretation of a mundane object, and the clear, precise attack of the swiftly closing scissors works impressively well with the piano and vocal forces.
Throughout PARALLEL WORLDS, Jirásek's creations are vibrant and profound, often suggesting the choir’s singing is filling an enormous venue. The composer constantly plays with layering fixed materials, and he often manipulates the density of these musical strata to pull the listener through his intricate compositional mazes.
HIGHLIGHTS
A composer of acclaimed works for film, concert, and recordings, Jan Jirásek’s writing was described by Samuel Hendricks as “subtle, superb arrangements that give clear expression to his musical ideas which, like those of any honest artist, are concerned not with the mask of art but the face behind it”
Jirásek draws from Renaissance and Medieval influences, which inform his use of chant-like melodies that often contrast with more polyphonic material. Unusual sounds – vocal and otherwise – also appear across the album, such as vocal glissandi and a pair of scissors
Sonagrama Magazine has lauded Jirásek’s compositions as “vibrant and passionate creations” full of “jubilant moments”
Formed in 1973 by Josef Vratil, JITRO is an award-winning children’s choir from the Czech Republic comprised of around 350 young singers ranging between five and 19 years of age. Since 1977, Artistic Director and Chorusmaster Jiří Skopal has the led the choir through many European, Asian, and American tours and international choral competitions
Noting that “jitro” means “daybreak” in Czech, BBC Music Magazine deemed this an apt description for the chorus’ “bright, gleaming” performances, which are “indeed like brilliant rays of sunshine slicing through the darkness.”
BBC also praised the musical cohesion of JITRO and Jirásek on previous Navona release CZECH AND MORAVIAN CHRISTMAS CAROLS, raving that the “sheer ripeness and vibrancy of the singing…is infectious, and when you add the peppery arrangements of composer Jan Jirásek to the mix…this sequence of Czech and Moravian carols becomes irresistible”
ALSO ON NAVONA
NV6010 CZECH AND MORAVIAN CHRISTMAS CAROLS
JAN JIRÁSEK | JITRO
Release Date June 09, 2017
Catalog #: NV6101
TRACK LISTING
JITRO Czech Girls Choir | JIŘÍ SKOPAL conductor
MISSA PROPRIA
01 Kyrie eleison
02 Gloria. Miserere. Gloria.
03 Credo. Agnus Dei.
SI, VIS AMARI, AMA
Michal Chrobák piano Jan Míšek tambourine
04 Omnia vincit amor
05 Quod me nutrit me destruit
06 Audentes fortuna iuvat
07 Si, vis amari, ama
MONDI PARALLELI
08 Miserere
09 Benedictus. Baruch Haba
10 Sanctus
11 Agnus Dei. Wheresoever you look...
12 Miserere. Avinu malkenu
13 Te Deum laudamus. OM AH HUM
14 Dona nobis pacem...is the face of God
15 KING LÁVRA
Michal Chrobák piano Pavel Plašil percussion Jan Jirásek scissors
CREDITS
MISSA PROPRIA
Recorded April 9 - 10 2011 at the Municipal Music Hall in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Producers Jan Jirásek, Jan Kyselák
Sound Engineer Václav Vlachý
SI, VIS AMARI, AMA
Recorded February 4 - 5 2012 at the Philharmonic Hall in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Producer Jan Kyselák
Sound Engineer Václav Vlachý
MONDI PARALLELI
Recorded January 23 - 24 2010 at the Municipal Music Hall in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Producer Jan Jirásek
Sound Engineers Tomáš Zikmund, Aleš Dvořák
KING LÁVRA
Recorded October 18 2015 at the
Municipal Music Hall in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Producer Jan Jirásek
Sound Engineer Aleš Dvořák
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
Audio Director Jeff LeRoy
Engineering Manager Lucas Paquette
Mastering Levi Brown
Art & Production Director Brett Picknell
Graphic Design Emily Roulo
Marketing Willie Mandeville
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