Vítezslava Kaprálová (1915–1940) is considered the most important woman composer of the twentieth-century Czech music. Her father was a composer (Václav Kaprál, who had studied with Janacek) and her mother a singer. She started composing when she was nine, and at fifteen she entered the Brno Conservatory where she studied composition and conducting.
She continued her musical education in Prague, and later studied with Bohuslav Martinu, Charles Munch, and Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1937–1940). In 1937 she conducted the Czech Philharmonic and a year later the BBC Orchestra in her composition Military Sinfonietta, to much critical acclaim. In 1946, in appreciation of her distinctive contribution to Czech Music, The Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts awarded Kaprálová membership in memoriam.
When she died only 25 years old of what could have been tuberculosis, she had already written many beautiful songs. But what a loss to the music world; one can only imagine what she could have written if she had had more time.
We were sent the score of the previously unrecorded song “Studeny vecer” by Karla Hartl of the Kaprálová Society. We are so happy they gave us the opportunity to discover Kaprálová’s beautiful music, and we warmly recommend their website: Kapralova.org.
Comments
beautiful song, im glad i discovered this lost gem by kaprálová, outstanding composer and one of my personal top 10
Thank you, Karla. I hope many people will discover Kapralova – she deserves it!
Thank you so much for making this recording available. What a brilliant interpretation! It is a true discovery, as the song was previously unknown and only recently published (in 2011 by Amos Editio, http://www.amoseditio.cz/).