String Serenades by Antonín Dvořák and Josef Suk have become a stable part of the repertoire of Czech chamber string orchestras, providing them with an opportunity to prove their performing mastery, and are very popular with the listeners. This album is a re-edition of the recordings by the Czech Chamber Orchestra from 1994 (Dvořák) and 2000 (Suk). Along with its re-release on CD it is now being released also on streaming platforms for the first time. „In their pieces, Dvořák and Suk both drew on the older form of classical serenade, a kind of musical diversion in the best sense of the word, a form that reached the peak of its popularity a century earlier as it was performed for the entertainment of the musicians and their music-loving audiences alike,“ says the musicologist Václav Holeček in the album’s liner notes. This recording was made at a time when the Czech Chamber Orchestra performed under the leadership of the conductor, violinist and composer Ondřej Kukal (b. 1964). During his tenure, the orchestra was experiencing its third heyday. Interpretatively and dramaturgically, he followed the principles of the orchestra's founder, Václav Talich, who founded the orchestra in 1945 with some of his best students from the Prague Conservatory. Thanks to its rigorous rehearsal routine and precise as well as enthusiastic approach to performance, the orchestra soon won a renown on the Czechoslovak stages and abroad, and collaborated, under Talich’s baton, with foremost international soloists. The initial phase of the orchestra’s promising career came to an end in 1948, when the Czechoslovak Communist regime banned Václav Talich from performing in public. In 1958, Josef Vlach, the first violin of the original Czech Chamber Orchestra and Talich’s student and collaborator decided to revive his teacher’s initiative. In 1993 Kukal took over the orchestra and continued in developing the principles of Talich's and Vlach's approach and maintained a regular concert calendar once again. After Ondřej Kukal gradually curtailed his conducting career due to a serious illness (he currently dedicates himself fully to composition), the conductor Andreas Sebastian Weiser collaborated with the orchestra. Today, the Czech Chamber Orchestra performs on special occasions only. With this album, we honor the exceptional role of the Czech Chamber Orchestra in the field of chamber music interpretation and the admirable commitment to bring perfection and pleasure to its audiences.