Christopher Purves bass - Chandos

CHAN 3121 BOOK.qxd 12/9/06 4:19 pm Page 30
Music in Prague. His
great interest and love
for Janáček commenced
in 1947 on hearing
Katya Kabanova
conducted by the great
Václav Talich.
As an assistant
conductor at Sadler’s
Wells in 1951 he gave
the first performance of
Katya Kabanova in the English-speaking
world. Later he introduced The Makropoulos
Case and From the House of the Dead at Sadler’s
Wells and continued conducting highly
successful productions of Janáček’s operas as
well as more standard repertoire when he
became Musical Director of English National
Opera (1970–77) and for Welsh National
Opera when he became their Musical Director
(1987–1992). He has been a pioneer in the
dissemination of the music of Janáček
throughout the capitals of Europe and in the
USA and Australia. Jenu˚fa has been a
particular favourite.
He has had a long association with the Czech
Philharmonic and recorded most of Janáček’s
orchestral works with them as well as Katya
Kabanova and Dvorˇák’s Rusalka. Included in his
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vast discography is an award-winning cycle of
the Janáček operas with the Vienna
Philharmonic in the early 1980s. For Chandos
he has recorded Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass in the
original version, Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus
and Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto. As part of the
Opera in English series he has recorded Jenu˚fa,
Eugene Onegin, Osud, La traviata, Werther,
Julius Caesar and Mary Stuart.
Sir Charles has also undertaken much
research into the music of the eighteenth
century, particularly Handel and Mozart. He
has recorded a series of Mozart and Gilbert
and Sullivan operas as well as a complete series
of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms
Symphonies, several oratorios by Handel and
symphonies by Mahler and Elgar. He is at
present Principal Guest Conductor of the
Philharmonia Orchestra, Conductor Laureate
of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and
Conductor Emeritus of Welsh National Opera
and the San Francisco Opera.
Sir Charles received a CBE in 1974, was
knighted in 1979, honoured with the Medal
of Merit from the Czech Republic in 1996
and made a Companion of the Order of
Australia in 1997. In 2003 he became a
Companion of Honour in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours.
Wilfried Hösl
31
Rebecca Evans as Ilia in the
Bayerischer Staatsoper, Munich’s
production of Mozart’s Idomeneo