The music of the Moravian composer Jan Novák (1921-84) - a natural successor to Bohuslav Martinu, with whom he briefly studied - is nothing less than life-enhancing: it has Martinu's rhythmic charge and his unflagging energy. And although Novák had such difficulties with the authorities in Communist Czechoslovakia that he chose to emigrate, there is an infectious optimism, a joie de vivre, in these three works that is instantly communicative. A second volume of works for chamber orchestra (TOCC0565) is also currently in preparation.