Each piece is a unique entity and refuses to be locked into a formal straitjacket rhythmically, harmonically, or melodically.

If the melodic content does not melt you with its beauty, as Chopin often does, the ideas are arresting and unexpected enough to keep you attentive. Each rhapsody is a gem… We are thankful to Biljana Urban for giving us an alternative to Radoslav Kvapil’s three-disc survey. © 2016 American Record Guide Read complete review on American Record Guide

The music presented on this disc is a wonderful mix of the classical and early romantic styles prevalent in the day. …the real highlight of the set must be the F Major Rhapsody, which is full of youthful exuberance, with the main theme being employed in the second movement Scherzo of his more popular B flat minor Sonata Op. 20 of 1820. An enjoyable collection of pieces. © 2016 MusicWeb International Read complete review

If you have been following this series of recordings of music by the Bohemian composer, Jan Václav Voříšek, you will be very surprised with this final volume. His life was all too short, for having been born in 1791 he lived just 34 years before his frail health eventually failed him. During that brief period he had chosen the financial safety of a position in the Austrian civil service in preference to the risky lifestyle of composition. That he was highly gifted has been made clear in this series so far, though the Twelve Rhapsodies show him in a very different light, the sheer strength of each work being hugely impressive, and when you realise he was largely self-taught, that admiration is doubled. The writing is often complex and substantial in its weight and impact. Indeed when composed in the first few years of the 19th century—while Beethoven still very much alive and the young Sherbert was his contemporary—it was very forward thinking. I would ask you to turn to track 7, and had these work carried either of those famous names, they would be celebrated as a masterpieces. And so I could go on eulogizing about the disc, relating that the Ninth foreshadows Chopin in its freedom of expression, and the vivacious Eleventh is seven minutes of sheer exuberance. We have to thank the admirable Yugoslav-born soloist, Biljana Urban, for bringing him back onto the international scene, her technique here tested in the many demanding passages, and fully meeting every challenge. The sound quality is very good, and I fervently commend the disc to you. © 2016 David’s Review Corner