Magdalena Kozena: Songs My Mother Taught Me

Magdalena Kozena, mezzo soprano; Malcolm Martineau, piano

Traditional: Kebych bola jahodú; Janacek: Moravská lidová poesie v písních (Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs); Dvorak: Ciganské melodie (Gypsy Melodies), Op.55; Schulhoff: Národní písne a tance z Tesinksa (Folksongs and Dances from the Tesinskso Region), WV120; Eben: Písne K Loutne; Rösler: An die Entfernte; Novak: Pohádka Srdce, Op.8; Dvorak: Vecerné písne (Evening Songs) #2 Mne zdálo se zes umrela [I dreamt last night]; Dvorak: Moravské dvojzpevy (Moravian Duets) #9 Prsten, #11 Zajatá; Martinu: Písnicky na dve stránky (Songs on two pages, seven songs an Moravian folk poetry); Janacek: Slezké písne (ze sbírky Heleny Salichové) [Siesian Songs (from Helena Salichová's Collection)] #7 Aj, co to je za slavicek, #10 V cernym lese

Gramophone Award Finalist - Solo Vocal 2009
Magdalena Kožená says that the title of this new disc is not fanciful. There are indeed songs here that her mother sang to her as a child and which she heard in village festivals from musicians who kept alive the traditions of Czech and Moravian folk poetry and song: “Especially the Janáček. These are songs he arranged in a very particular way, and they are just the sort a mother would sing to her baby. My mother is not a professional singer, but she loved to sing and knew a lot of songs! There is a particular tradition of singing to children in our country, much stronger, I would say, than one sees any more in the West. It was really important that in each family these songs would be handed down, taught to the children."
Kožená’s musical partners on the album include her long-standing recital partner Malcolm Martineau, and soprano Dorothea Röschmann, who joins her in Dvořák’s Moravian duets.

Price: $15.98