A student of Novák, Martinů and Václav Talich, Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915‑40) might have been a leading composer of the last century had she not died of typhoid fever at the age of 25. This collection of her completed orchestral works shows us a young composer whose musical personality is already discernible. Pianist Rudolf Firkušný described her temperament as ‘unpredictable’, and this is true of her music as well. Yet how deftly she moves from one idea to the next. Her music almost always flows in a way that sounds utterly natural and right.

At a quarter of an hour, her Military Sinfonietta (1937) is the largest single-movement structure here, and it covers an enormous emotional range but its many seams are sewn together with remarkable economy. There’s less of a distinct Czech accent here and elsewhere than one might expect – it’s strongest in the Suita rustica (1938), based on Czech folk songs and dances, with a middle movement that pays homage to Smetana – and it’s clear she also had a strong affinity for Debussy and Bartók.

Kaprálová wrote her Piano Concerto (1935) while still a student in Brno, and it’s the kind of big, colourful, unabashedly romantic and hugely entertaining showpiece I’d be delighted to encounter in the concert hall. Tomás Vrána imbues the solo part with tremendous flair, and I prefer his interpretation to Amy I‑Lin Cheng’s more demure account on an all-Kaprálová Naxos album recorded with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. That said, Kenneth Kiesler’s interpretation of the Military Sinfonietta is more vividly characterised, but that Naxos disc excludes the Suita rustica as well as the superb Partita for piano and strings (1939) – a work that’s closely related to Martinů’s Double Concerto. I also prefer Veronika Rovná’s sensitive and pitch-perfect reading of the orchestral song Waving Farewell (1937) to Nicholas Phan’s.

Kaprálová was the first woman to conduct the Czech Philharmonic, so it’s fitting that Alena Hron leads the proceedings here, as she’s the first woman to be named music director of a Czech orchestra. The Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava play extremely well for her and, my niggling comments about the Military Sinfonietta aside, these interpretations do full justice to Kaprálová’s art.

Gramophone, July 2024