The day Czech music died

The Lebrecht Album of the Week draws your attention to the complete piano music of  Vítězslava Kaprálová, whose tragic death in 1940, aged 25, ended a golden era in Czech music.

From the review:

Don’t look away just because the composer’s name is unfamiliar and has too many syllables. Kapralova (1915-1940) is a vital link in Czech music, her death at 25 the closure of a century of genius. Daughter of a Leos Janacek student and herself the secret lover of Bohuslav Martinu, Kapralova flowered in France and Britain in the last years before the Second World War. In addition to composing she was an active conductor, the first woman to raise a baton on BBC television….

Read on here.

And here.