Described by La Presse as “impeccable in every respect,” Montreal’s exciting young chamber orchestra Appassionata presents a radiant new recording, Sérénades tchèques (Czech serenades) featuring music for string orchestra by Josef Suk and Antonin Dvořák, under the direction of its Music Director Daniel Myssyk. Praised by Radio-Canada for its “fluidity, drama and conviction,” the recording also boasts spectacular gleaming sound, due to a unique X2HD recording process by the Montreal label Fidelio. The sound on the new recording is described by Fanfare as “simply astounding … the disc opens on a soundstage of such breadth, depth, clarity, and transparency that all sense of speakers, amplifiers, and other electronics between you and the orchestra quite literally disappears. You are there.”
Following their critically-acclaimed debut recording Idyla—a 2010 Opus Prize finalist for best album—featuring music by Janáček, Appassionata and Myssyk plunge back into the Czech Romantic repertoire. Josef Suk’s joyful Serenade for Strings in E flat major, Op.6 is imbued with grace and finesse, followed by the sheer exuberance of Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings in E major, Op.22 and that composer’s intimate and haunting Nocturne for Strings in B major, Op.40. “Working and reworking these serenades, we came to believe that it is truly possible to evoke the spirit of these composers,” says Myssyk, “In our recording sessions for these great dramatic works we created a feeling of osmosis similar to that of actors who spend weeks in rehearsal before the premiere.”
Founded in 2000 by Daniel Myssyk, Appassionata, comprised of twenty musicians, presents fifteen concerts per season in Quebec and on tour, and is frequently broadcast on Radio-Canada’s Espace Musique. The orchestra’s first American tour was in January 2012. Specializing in music from the Classical period, Appassionata also produces the highly praised youth series “Musique, Maestro!”, directed at elementary school students in disadvantaged areas. This season, Appassionata celebrates the music of Haydn with a series of three concerts featuring the composer’s “Morning”, “Noon” and “Evening” Symphonies.
Appassionata’s Artistic Director, Daniel Myssyk is also Assistant Professor and Director of Orchestral Activities at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Recent engagements include his debut with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and the All-Virginia State Symphony and his first appearance with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal in February 2012. Myssyk has studied conducting with great masters including David Zinman, Larry Rachleff and, most recently, Sir Roger Norrington in Vienna.
Listen here: www.appassionata.ca/en/discographie/