Slovak Folk Poetry in Songs

The present release features Slovak folk poetry in songs - performed by excellent Czech musicians. Two great artists, Roman Janál (baritone) and Karel Kosárek (piano), are presenting songs of M. Schneider-Trnavský and B. Martinu. This album was recorded in Martinu Hall in Prague (August 2021). Roman Janál studied the violin at the Plzen Conservatory and voice at the Music Academy in Sofia, where, while still a student, he appeared as a guest at the State Opera (Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia). His first engagement was in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, afterwards he joined the Chamber Opera (later on, Opera Mozart) in Prague. He is an honorary member of the International Antonín Dvorák Vocal Centre. He taught at the Prague Conservatory, and at the Academy of Music and the International Conservatory in Prague. Karel Kosárek is a much sought-after Czech pianist who appears not only as a soloist, but also with leading orchestras. A graduate of the Musical Faculty of the Prague Academy of Performing Arts and the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, he is a winner of the Smetana Piano Competition and the Corpus Christi Piano Competition, and a prizewinner of the Walter Naumburg Competition in New York. Recitals at previous seasons in New York, Dallas, Palm Beach, Calgary, Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg and Bangkok, as well as concert appearances in Europe and Japan, indicate the scope of his international artistic activity.