NEWS

LIBOR
AT WIGMORE HALL

Libor's first two CDs on the Landor Records label were released in 2006 to outstanding reviews in the music press including the BBC Music Magazine, International Record Review, and Editor's Choice in Gramophone Music Magazine. His Liszt CD featuring Annees de Pelerinage - Italie and Mephisto Waltz No.1, was awarded the 'Diplom d'Honneur' in October 2007 by the prestigious Ferenc Liszt Society.

His third CD for Landor Records with music by Brahms, which has the Sonata and 3 Intermezzi performed in Prague and also 8 Klavierstucke op. 76, will be launched at Libor's Wigmore Hall recital on June 4 this year.

A further recording will take place in August, which will include Liszt - Annees de Pelerinage - Premiere Annee - Suisse, plus a selection of small Liszt pieces.

In February Libor had given a series of concerts in northern Spain, well reviewed and broadcast on TV.

On 23rd February 2008 Libor made his solo debut in the beautiful Dvorak Hall of the Rudolfinum in his native town of Prague. A superb performance of a hugely demanding programme (Brahms - Sonata No 2 in F sharp minor and Three Intermezzi op.117 plus Liszt - Annees de Pelerinage - Premiere Annee - Suisse) before a rapturous audience of over 1000 people. The day following his performance in Prague Libor was off to perform the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the RPO in Northampton, before a sold-out house of 1700!

His festival appearances include King's Lynn and concert tours include South Africa (Capetown, Paarl, Pretoria and Johannesburg).

Following the Wigmore, Libor's next major London appearance will be in St. John's, Smith Square on 4 July as part of the UN Declaration of Human Rights 60th anniversary concert.

Libor's future plans include concerts with the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Carducci Quartet, the John Ogdon Memorial Concert in Mansfield and concerti in Scotland and concert tours in Spain.

*****

by Dave Robson

Darlington Arts Centre

In a very full evening of contrasting large-scale works, he played Janacek's In The Mists, which reflects on life from the viewpoint of old age, intense and resigned. Over the decades, I have heard the work performed many times by leading pianists of different nationalities and seniority, but never, I venture, recorded with such a deep emotional power and insight as by this young man.

'[Brahms' Piano Sonata in F sharp minor Opus 2]... Novacek played it with relish, with the ardour of burgeoning youth in the opening allegro and no less lively in the ensuing movements.

'[The first book of Liszt's Annees de pelerinage]... All were performed with
a sensitive touch, never replacing power with stridency, by a performer of distinction, even in the hot colours and rhythms of Spain in an deserved encore of Manuel de Falla's Fire Dance.

FULL REVIEW (graphic format)

*****

HOSPODARSKE NOVINY

25th February 2008
by Petr Veber

'The pianist demonstrated his ability to produce a wide spectrum of rich, broad, colourful and resounding sound...'

'Novacek enraptured himself in the music of Brahms's 3 Intermezzi,
thus making time stand still... '

'[Novacek]... showed fearless and flawless touch, phenomenal inspiration and imagination, well-pondered architecture of the large passages and musical form, and often displayed his mastery
over extreme technical difficulties...'

FULL REVIEW (graphic format)

*****