Prima Facie Records

Rainsongs and Other Works (PFCD060)

Music by Karel Janovický
Lesley Jane Rogers (soprano), John Turner (recorder), Joan Taylor (piano), The Manchester Camerata Ensemble

CD OUT OF STOCK
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"A well performed taster from a very large catalogue of compositions... inspiringly played by Joan Taylor... Lesley-Jane Rogers’ singing is a sheer pleasure... John Turner’s performances are excellent... Manchester Camerata Ensemble are in tip-top condition... The sound quality is ideal on the entire CD." John France, Music Web International

Janovicky: Festive Fantasia And Fugue
The Manchester Camerata Ensemble

Janovicky: Rainsongs
The Manchester Camerata Ensemble; Lesley Jane Rogers (soprano)

Janovicky: Sonata For Recorder And Piano
The Manchester Camerata Ensemble; John Turner (recorder)

Janovicky: Passages Of Flight
The Manchester Camerata Ensemble

Janovicky: Sonata For Piano
The Manchester Camerata Ensemble; Joan Taylor (piano)

Janovicky: Quintet For Recorder And Strings
The Manchester Camerata Ensemble; John Turner (recorder)

Karel Janovický was born in 1930 in the west-Bohemian town of Pilsen in the then Czechoslovakia. His father was a singer at the local opera. Karel had piano lessons from early childhood and his earliest compositions include songs he wrote for his father whom he later on accompanied in public performances. In 1949 he left the country for Germany and a year later came to England to study and eventually to settle. He received a Master of Music degree from the Royal College of Music and had composition lessons with Matyas Seiber. In 1953 he was awarded the Dutch Gaudeamus Foundation prize and in 1957 won the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 'Garland for Shakespeare' competition with his Variations on a theme of Robert Johnson, Op.17, premiered subsequently by the Bournemouth S.O. under Sir Charles Groves. In 1964 he took the post of producer in the BBC Gramophone Department and three year later moved to the BBC World Service where for the last ten years before retirement he directed the Czechoslovak Service. Throughout his career he continued to compose, much of it chamber music but also a one-act opera The Utmost Sail on a sci-fi subject. He also built up a reputation for coaching choirs, singers and opera in the Czech vocal repertoire. As a publicist he has written and broadcast on a number of related subjects and translated and edited Jaroslav Vogel's biography of Janácek.