Czech harpist Kateřina Englichová has released two new chamber music albums in 2022. K2 features her collaboration with soprano Kateřina Kněžíková. Recorded on the Radioservis label, the voice and harp album is available on Radioteka.cz in CD and digital formats, and can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music. Englichová also released Nocturne with violinist Silvie Hessová on the ArcoDiva label. We reached out to Englichová to learn more about her new recordings.
Both of your new albums feature chamber music. What did you learn from working through the recording process as part of two different ensembles?
Today’s recording sessions are fascinating for me. In the sound set-up, the microphones are so sensitive and so close to you that it [feels like] you are being analyzed from the inside out—your breath is heard, the touch of your fingers on the strings, nails—it is nerve-wracking as well as exciting at the same time. And I think it is even more challenging playing and recording chamber music.
I don’t see much difference between collaboration with my dear colleagues, soprano Kateřina Kněžíková or violinist Silvie Hessová. If you are on the same wavelength of musical understanding, you really don’t have to discuss almost anything. It becomes the “absolute joy” of music making.
How did you choose the pieces on each album?
With K2 ([which stands for] two Kateřinas and the mountain Karàkóram, second highest in the world), we decided to concentrate first on the Czech and Slovak folk-song-based pieces we always loved: Janáček, Martinů, Petr Eben’s beautiful song cycle “Songs with Lute,” a contemporary song cycle dedicated to us by Sylvie Bodorová, and on top of that Britten’s “The Birthday Hansel” (composed in honor of the Queen Mother’s 75th birthday and set to texts by Robert Burns).
The violin and harp recording is a different story. The main theme behind it is Central European composers with a Jewish and/or French connection—Rubinstein, Klein, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Tournier, Ibert, Hasselmans, Chopin (arr. Milstein), plus the arrangement of Jerry Bock’s Fiddler on the Roof and John Williams’ Schindler’s List (“Krakow’s Ghetto” and “Remembrances”).
In both CDs, we tried to put together compositions we could relate to, loved for years, or always wanted to play. They are both labeled as “COVID CDs,” recorded in very difficult times for all of us on planet earth.
What are some of your favorite works you recorded this year?
It is hard to pick one. I like all the pieces. But if I have to choose, I truly adore the Janáček and Eben song cycles. Gideon Klein’s Lullaby (written in 1943 in the concentration camp Theresienstadt) and John Williams’ Suite from Schindler’s List somehow get even more “under my skin”—the nostalgia, sadness, the inevitable destiny, the tragic history of Central Europe which seems to be repeating again not far from my country, in Ukraine…
Do you have any other upcoming projects?
There will be a release of a live concert recording of a new concerto written for me by a wonderful Czech composer, Kryštof Marek.
I am also finishing my solo CD with some well-known works (Smetana-Trneček, Hasselmans, Debussy, Dvořák) as well as unknown works by composers such as Satie, Glass, [and the Czech composer] Fibich.
But right now, I’m finishing a project together with my colleagues, soprano Alžběta Poláčková and oboist Vilém Veverka, with music by Mahler, Liszt, Bernstein, and Gershwin. The first concert is to be in February.
To learn more about Englichová’s chamber music recordings, check out Harp Column’s CD review of her 2017 album recorded in collaboration with oboist Vilém Veverka. For more about her upcoming projects, visit her website.
