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Pianist Ivo Kahánek won the Anděl Award

Congratulations to the musician Ivo Kahánek on the Anděl Award in the Classical category for the recording of The Complete Piano Works of Antonín Dvořák

The piano virtuoso is celebrating another great musical success.

Ivo Kahánek, almost a "court" pianist of the IMF Dvořák´s Prague, curator of its Chamber Series in 2015 and a frequent guest on the festival stage. He received this award for his ensemble recording of piano works by Antonín Dvořák. The 4-CD set entitled "Dvořák: Complete Piano Works" includes larger cycles, occasional pieces and a few curiosities. It was released last September by Supraphon in cooperation with the Academy of Classical Music, which is also the organiser of the Dvořák Prague Festival. This production would not have been possible without the significant financial support of the Karel Komárek Family Foundation.

The winning recording was created on the initiative of Dvořák's Prague's director Jan Simon over the course of a few months. It was launched by a successful "piano marathon" held under the patronage of Ivo Kahánek during the Dvořák's Prague 2020 festival, which featured Dvořák's works for solo and four-hand piano in one day.

Winning the Anděl Prize is the culmination of a number of important awards and attention this recording has received from the foreign and domestic professional public. The CD has been ranked No. 1 in the Czech classical album chart of the National Federation of the Music Industry IFPI for 11 weeks, and the French commercial music streaming and downloading service Qobuz has ranked the set among the 100 best-selling recordings in the world.

In its December issue, the prestigious British music magazine Gramophone gave a superlative review: 'Kahánek interprets each song as if it were everything to him. I don't think I can pay him a greater compliment than to admit that he is the first pianist ever to play a Dvořák solo piano piece that is practically on a par with Smetana's. This is a superb set that no lover of Romantic music should let go unnoticed."

The Belgian professional website Stretto commented that "Dvořák's complete piano works performed by Ivo Kahánek are authentic and inspiring. Simply top! ", while in the French music magazine Diapason the recording received the highest award, i.e. 5 "tuning marks", replacing the usual stars.

At the end of 2021, the CD set of the complete works of Antonín Dvořák was nominated for the prestigious International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in the solo instrument category. The recording was also awarded Album of the Week by the German radio portal MDR Kultur (2021).

 

 

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