Born in 1915 into a musical family, Vítezslava Kaprálová was one of the brightest young composers to emerge in Czech music inbetween the two world wars. You may have come across her name in association with her mentor, the composer Bohuslav Martinu, with whom she later became romantically involved, but irrespective of that link Kaprálová achieved considerable success under her own steam, notching up a series of professional achievements that set her apart from her contemporaries. She was the first woman to graduate as a composer from the Brno Conservatory, the first woman to be given the prestigious Smetana award for composition and the first woman to conduct the Czech Philharmonic. Here in the UK Kaprálová joined the ranks of British composer Dame Ethel Smyth and Nadia Boulanger in conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra before the Second World War.

There's litte doubt that the turbulence of the times in which Kaprálová lived created obstacles in her creative path. She became an exile after the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the subsequent onset of the Second World War. Furthermore, like the talented French composer Lili Boulanger some twenty years earlier, Kaprálová's life was cut short; she died in France in 1940, at the age of just twenty-five. Nonetheless she was able to compose quickly and naturally, so a sizeable legacy exists of some fifty works, spread across vocal, chamber, solo piano and orchestral forms. Donald Macleod explores Vítezslava Kaprálová's extraordinary story with Karla Hartl, the founder of The Kaprálová Society.

Now living in exile in Paris, Vítezslava Kaprálová finds her life increasingly insecure. Encouraged by her mentor Martinu, with whom she's been having an affair, she tries unsuccessfully to secure a place at New York's Juilliard School. After breaking off her relationship with Martinu, she decides to marry the Czech writer Jírí Mucha, although she remains conflicted. On the morning of her wedding, one biographer claims she called on Martinu. On her deathbed, her last words were "That's Julietta", a reference to the three note calling card she and Martinu had taken from his opera.

Presented by Donald Macleod, with Karla Hartl from the Kaprálová Society.

Elegy
Stephanie Chase, violin
Virginia Eskin, piano

Sung into the Distance, Op.22
Dana Burešová, soprano
Timothy Cheek, piano

Concertino for Violin, Clarinet and Orchestra, Op.21 (3 movements)
Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
Lukás Danhel, clarinet
Pavel Wallinger, violin
Olga Machonová Pavlu, conductor

Partita, Op.20
Jírí Skovajsa, piano
Czech Symphony Orchestra of Brno
Frantisek Jilek, conductor

Ritornel, Op.25
Ivan Merka, cello
Jaroslav Smýkal, piano. Show less