Smetana: String Quartets No 1 & 2 / Pavel Haas Quartet
Supraphon
CD
$31.99May 12, 2015
In their native repertoire they are well nigh incomparable. I have not heard an account of “From My Life” that prepares us so starkly, in its turbulent opening Allegro vivo appassionato, for its tragic outcome. And it’s hard to imagine a more compelling or harrowing take on the less frequently programmed D minor quartet.
– Sunday Times
The quartet understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana’s vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly – and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something. This is extraordinarily bold playing – and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music.
Smetana's Mavlast is one of the most powerful and undoubted cultural values of the Czech people. The work continues to be relevant, since it draws on the ideas about the history and role of the Czech nation conceived by FrantiSek Palacky, presenting a modern European nation in a light that is effective in more that the narrow national context - as exemplified by the history, interpretation, popularity and an incredible number of recordings of the Mavlast cycle from the 30s of the 20th. The new live recording of Smetana's works brings the interpretive view of the youngest generation of conductors based on current methods of interpretation, in an effort to come closer to the original text, as much as possible. Marek Stilec is the conductor of Hradec Kralove Philharmonic Orchestra.
The recording of the concert performance in Nazi-occupied Prague of Bedrich Smetana’s My Country (SU 4065-2) conducted by Václav Talich, which took place on 5 July 1939, drew considerable attention worldwide (Special Historic Gramophone Award 2012). It seemed that Talich’s discography had thus been rounded off for good. Yet the personal effects of the late soprano Marie Podvalová, renowned for her outstanding portrayal of Princess Libuše, provided yet another gem. A week prior to the mentioned performance of My Country, on 29 May 1939 a recording was made at the National Theatre of Talich’s account of Smetana’s opera Libuše. Fragments of Act 3 have been reconstructed from the miraculously surviving foils (the present album also contains the 1940 recording of the Overture). In 1939, Libuše’s prophecy in Act 3 of Smetana’s opera must have sounded to Czech ears like an immensely bold declaration of national pride and courage. Although incomplete and far from being perfect in terms of the quality of sound, the recording’s value is truly immense. It is the one and only recording of an opera conducted by Talich, the oldest surviving transmission of an opera performance from the National Theatre in Prague, and the last staging of Libuše during the Nazi occupation before its performances were strictly banned. The audience’s long tumultuous applause and spontaneous singing of the national anthem attest to the moment’s enormous emotional gravity, imbuing the recording with exceptional energy. Talich’s unique account of Libuše – a bold manifestation of national pride and bravery in 1939 in Nazi-occupied Prague
SMETANA Má Vlast • Claus Peter Flor, cond; Malaysian PO • BIS 1805 (SACD: 76: 00)
There is something about Bed?ich Smetana’s Má Vlast that defies interpretation by anyone other than a Czech conductor. You have undoubtedly heard the names: Václav Talich, Karel An?erl, Václav Neumann, and most prominently in this case, Rafael Kubelík. His 1952 mono Mercury Olympian LP recorded with a single Telefunken microphone was an interpretive and sonic landmark, and its sound still holds up well today except for an inevitable lack of stereo spatial information. In fact, over the last 50 years, there has never been a better recorded performance of Má Vlast, even by Kubelik himself in several newer versions on different labels. His hugely anticipated and much-hyped remake with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon) was especially disappointing sonically and interpretively.There have been numerous other significant recordings of Má Vlast, primarily by Czech conductors released by Supraphon, that have had consistently mediocre sound. Má Vlast doesn’t work well with Supraphon’s typical dry and harmonically threadbare sound. It is great to see performances by non-Czech conductors, but recent high-profile releases by Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live SACD) and Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Vienna Philharmonic (RCA) have good sound but the interpretations are somewhat problematic. With this background, you have to wonder about the competitiveness of Claus Peter Flor conducting the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra has already made some good-sounding and critically acclaimed Bis recordings of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music, but it is the stunning SACD of Josef Suk’s “Asrael” Symphony, also conducted by Flor, that made me eager to hear this Má Vlast.
Comparing the timings of Kubelík and Flor is encouraging and instructive. There is only a 20-second difference in a work that is more than 76 minutes long. I can’t imagine a case that better illustrates the uselessness of timings to predict a conductor’s interpretive approach. Flor takes a hard-driving, propusive, dry-eyed, and at least ostensibly fast approach to Má Vlast. He also has no clue about the emotional content of this music that is so striking in interpretations by Kubelík and other Czech conductors. You can usually tell how Má Vlast is going to evolve from the opening of “Vy?ehrad.” Flor’s short, clipped, opening harp phrases and lean orchestral textures emphasize forward motion and play down any sense of grandeur. The end of “?árka” is almost hysterical, and is immediately followed by the initial chords of “From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests,” which hit like a bulldozer. Flor does not shy away from pounding out those repetitive triplets in “Tábor,” and the timpanist is predictably aggressive in “Tábor” and “Blaník.” It is all very exciting where underplaying the bombast would induce boredom, as it does with Harnoncourt. On the other hand, Flor’s central nocturne in “Vltava” is gorgeous and atmospheric, and he also handles the tricky rhythms in the second half of “From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests” better than other virtuosic internationalized interpretors like Davis and Harnoncourt. Flor’s finale comes closest to but does not match Kubelík in cumulative impact as they both broaden their tempo for the final statement of the ubiquitous Hussite hymn and the principal theme.
Kubelík’s (Mercury) remains unchallenged as a performance, but it is a mono recording and the CD will be difficult to find. In modern stereo sound, this recording ranks with the best except in terms of orchestral execution where I prefer Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra. The Vienna Philharmonic is on autopilot in Harnoncourt’s soporific version, but is much better with James Levine (Deutsche Grammophon). For a more modern stereo version by Kubelík, go with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orfeo).
FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen
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Claus Peter Flor directs a tremendously exciting performance of Má Vlast, one that compares favorably to any in the catalog. He takes great pains to characterize each piece, and each section, to the fullest extent possible. In The Moldau you won't find a more vivid contrast between the scenes of the hunt, the peasant dance, the nocturne (exquisite soft brass), and the rapids (ferocious!) anywhere. The violent conclusion of Sárka is absolutely thrilling, the opening of From Bohemia's Woods and Fields terrifying. While not entirely disguising the episodic nature of Tábor (probably an impossible task), Flor keeps the last two tone poems moving forward purposefully to the work's heroic closing bars. It's a great interpretation, one that surely deserves to be documented and enjoyed by collectors.
Technically, the playing of the Malaysian Philharmonic is good, but not perfect. The trumpets at the climax of The Moldau don't quite match timbres as they should (a common problem). Toward the end of Tábor, Flor pushes the triple-forte galloping rhythm in the strings so hard that the result sounds more like Mahler's "struck with the bow" effect. The wild string triplets in Blaník are exciting, but not always ideally together, and there is a cymbal crash missing around measure 214. Some of the climaxes also suffer from an over-enthusiastic timpanist, and as a percussionist I don't make that accusation lightly. Still, Flor's own concept is so powerful, and the orchestral response so committed, that this vivid SACD production deserves very serious consideration.
The recording captures the quartet as if they were in your living room... This is the kind of album that makes record reviewing the best job in the world. (Gramophone Awards) "These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique." (BBC Music Magazine) "This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." (Gramophone) "In their native repertoire they are well-nigh incomparable." (The Sunday Times) When the most prominent critics across the board concur in the opinion that an album is extraordinary, it certainly deserves to be released on vinyl. Although Smetana's chamber pieces are few in number, each of them - personal, many a time harboring a bold autobiographical statement - constitutes one of the cornerstones of Czech chamber music. Smetana wrote his two quartets in the twilight of his life, when he was afflicted by deafness. String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", is a programme work: "My aim was to depict in tones the course of my life... The piece is of an intimate nature; therefore I deliberately wrote it for 4 instruments, which should converse as though within a close circle of friends..." Owing to it's being composed in an unconventional manner, String Quartet No. 2 comes across as a 20th-century work. The Pavel Haas Quartet's award-winning album has been released by Supraphon for vinyl fans and lovers of perfect sound on a top-quality LP, supplemented by a Hi-Res digital version. Smetana's intimate and timeless music, as performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet - for the first time on vinyl
Although programmatic, Bedrich Smetana’s string quartets do not deal with historical or social themes.
Instead, they express the composer’s subjective feelings through the medium of chamber music.
The Wihan Quartet, formed in 1985 and still made up of the original four members, has developed an outstanding reputation for the interpretation of its native Czech repertoire as well as the many classical, romantic and modern masterpieces of the repertoire.
MusicWeb-International “Recording of the Month”
Renowned bass-baritone Adam Plachetka celebrates the Year of Czech Music with an anthology of Czech evening songs by Antonin Dvorak, Bedrich Smetana, Zdenek Fibich and Josef Suk. All based on love poems for Vitezslav Halek's Vecerni pisne (Evening Songs), these songs provide a panorama of great Czech music, also zooming in on lesser-known repertoire. Plachetka performs them together with pianist David svec. Bass-baritone Adam Plachetka frequents the world's most prestigious opera houses, and is a MET regular, equally at home in dramatic and comic repertoire. He returns to PENTATONE after having released Molieri, combining opera arias by Mozart and Salieri, in 2022.
The most complete collection available of music by the father of Czech nationalism in music. Ma Vlast, The Bartered Bride and the String Quartet ‘From My Life’: all written within a decade of each other, all so fundamental in their different genres in forming a Czech national identity in music that it can seem incredible they were the work of a single composer.
This extensive collection contains the complete orchestral works, the two passionate and highly personal string quartets, the dramatic Piano Trio, a generous selection of piano music, including the complete Czech Dances, and the opera The Bartered Bride, sung in German.
Performers include the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Theodore Kuchar (Classics Today writes: “Performance: 9. Theodore Kuchar and his forces tackle Ma Vlast with plenty of enthusiasm and vigor; indeed, from Sarka onward this is one of the best versions available.”), the Czech Stamic Quartet, Czech pianist Antonin Kubalek, Roberto Plano, and the Staatskapelle Dresden/Otmar Suitner.
The performances here all won enthusiastic reviews on their original release; gathered together here, they make an ideal introduction to Smetana’s world.
‘One of the most dramatic sets of the tone-poems that I have ever encountered.’ Rob Cowan, Gramophone, September 2019
‘Wonderful conducting and playing of both familiar and unfamiliar Smetana.’ Fanfare, November 2008 (Orchestral works)
‘The Stamitz Quartet are one of the most impressive [Czech quartets]… Their performance of the E minor is on the grandest scale.’ Gramophone, March 2005
Composed after the onset of Smetana’s incurable deafness, Má vlast (‘My Fatherland’) is an unprecedented cycle of six related symphonic poems that evoke ancient Czech legends and celebrate the majestic beauty of the country’s landscapes. Heard here in critically acclaimed performances by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Walter Susskind, this Vox Audiophile Edition recording was first released in 1975 and is newly remastered from the original tapes.
The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.
Three live recordings from Lucerne, released for the first time, commemorate Vaclav Neumann, one of the most distinguished podium stars of the so-called Eastern Bloc. As chief conductor of the legendary Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, Neumann was regarded as an accomplished advocate of the music of his homeland in particular, which he shaped without sentimentality, but rather with a sense of form, a love of detail and a singing espressivo. "I am a Czech through and through," Vaclav Neumann once confessed - thus subliminally hinting that even in the politically turbulent times of the Cold War, he could not imagine any other homeland than Prague. Czech identity was also his artistic trademark, especially during his years at the helm of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted from 1968 to 1990 and established as a cultural ambassador for his country on countless tours. The impetus for his international career, however, came from the GDR, where Neumann worked at Walter Felsenstein's Komische Oper in Berlin and later as Gewandhaus and opera conductor in Leipzig - a position steeped in tradition, which he resigned in 1968 in protest against the events of the "Prague Spring". In the summer of 1969, the Czech Philharmonic was the first orchestra from beyond the "Iron Curtain" to perform at the Lucerne Festival - under Neumann's baton, of course. Four further guest appearances followed between 1984 and 1990, including thrilling interpretations of Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, his late tone poem The Wood Dove and the prelude to Smetana's opera Libuse. Neumann never lapses into national emphasis, instead seeking a balance between richly nuanced lines - the trained violinist and violist spoke of the "singing orchestra" -, strict form and precise realisation of the musical text. All three live recordings are first releases. The 32-page, trilingual booklet contains a portrait of the conductor by Michael Struck-Schloen and shows previously unpublished photos from the festival archive. In cooperation with audite, Lucerne Festival presents outstanding concert recordings of formative festival artists in the "Historic Performances" series. The aim of the edition is to unearth hitherto largely unpublished treasures from the first six decades of the Festival, which was born in 1938 with a "Concert de Gala" conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The audio documents come from the archives of SRF Swiss Radio and Television, which has regularly broadcast the Lucerne concerts since the beginning. They have been carefully restored and supplemented with material and photos from the Lucerne Festival archive: a festival history in sound.
The soul of Bohemia: familiar masterpieces and little-known gems for string ensemble by the five most famous Czech composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The affection and vigor of Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings has kept its freshness while many other works from the same era have receded into obscurity. This performance by the Ciconia Consort lends it a new lease of life: as rhythmically springy and attentive to detail as the ensembles previous, critically acclaimed explorations of the string-orchestra repertoire of France, England, the US and Germany in beautifully curated themes. Janáček’s Suite for Strings is an early work, Romantic in character and recognizably descended from the String Serenades of Dvorák and Tchaikovsky, but nonetheless characteristic of the composer’s quirky language with its adoption of Czech speech rhythms. In 1931, Martinů was also inspired by Czech folk melodies when writing his Partita as a Czech émigré in faraway Paris. However, Martinů develops these melodies in a modern style reminiscent of Béla Bartók. Without slow movements, intimacy, or a poetic character, the character of the suite as a whole is spicy, tough and extrovert: inimitably Martinů. Smetana scored his tone-picture Rybár (The Fisherman), for harmonium, harp, and strings: it is a musical ‘tableau vivant’ after Goethe’s poem Der Fischer, which describes a fisherman who is overpowered by the mysterious and magical pull of the water. The theme of Rybár and Smetana’s haunting translation into music also make it a kind of study for his evocation of the river Vltava in Ma Vlast. A little more familiar is the grave Meditation on the Hymn to St Wenceslas by Dvorák’s student and son-in-law, Josef Suk, in which the old melody is treated like a family heirloom.
REVIEW:
CD Slavic Rhapsody begins at a high level and very excitingly with Dvořák’s String Serenade, which Dick van Gasteren and his Ciconia Consort, the string orchestra from The Hague, present not as a soft-boiled egg, but as a lively and energetic piece of music.
Very expressive, and rhetorically sharpened, with powerful gestures, the fast movements of the Suite for String Orchestra by Leos Janacek are also played, while the two Adagios become effective with great sensitivity.
Suk’s Wenceslas Meditation also benefits from this dynamic, its chorale possessing a moving depth.
The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) composed his Partita Suite in 1931. It is a neoclassical work in which the underlying folk-musical tone cannot be ignored. The Chamber Orchestra from The Hague enlivens the somewhat academic form with gripping and urgent playing.
Smetana’s short portrait of a fisherman with strings, harmonium and harp closes this CD with which the Ciconia Consort celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Babadjanian, Krenek & Smetana: Epochs & Cultures in Dialogue
Oehms Classics
CD
$19.99Jan 17, 2025
The debut album by the young Trio Contrasti takes us on a journey through time with a mosaic of sounds in which epochs and cultures enter into dialogue. Romanticism gave the art world a new paradigm of thought. Music took the leading position among the arts; the freedom of formal design, initiated by the content, unfolded. The quest for national self-identification and the rapid development of national styles in art began. Romanticism opened the way for a dialogue between epochs and cultures that continued into the 20th century. Three works that have no direct connection to each other are nevertheless in a common context. When viewed through the prism of a romantic paradigm, they can be seen as milestones on the path through epochs and cultures.
Smetana's two string quartets could be said to be the first programmatic chamber music pieces ever written. The first quartet is a remarkable work with a very strong connection to Czech musicians. It belongs among the real treasures of Czech chamber music. The main characteristic of the second quartet is it's intensity of musical ideas, as the composer was deaf and close to the end of his life. The Dance of Comedians illustrates the famous era of Smetana ´s being considered the Czech national composer. An idiomatic account by one of Czech leading string quartets.
Music is NOT that which sounds. Music is WHY that which sounds, sounds like it sounds - WHEN it sounds. The above quote by legendary Finnish conductor and larger-than-life composer Leif Segerstam neatly and - in typical Segerstam fashion - cryptically summarizes his philosophy on music, as wells as his unique approach to why music matters. It was felt by and intrigued anyone who was lucky enough to work with him, and it fuelled every aspect of his work in Aarhus, first as principal guest conductor (2018-21) and later honorary conductor (2021-22) for the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. It is also evident in the recordings you have before you, the last ones made before his passing in October 2024. "This man has more music in his little finger than many conductors have in their whole body" is a popular quote by one of the orchestra's musicians, and it aptly describes the feelings of electricity and passion that ran through rehearsals with Leif. There is no doubt that music was everything - and in everything - of Segerstam's life.
Franz Liszt, musical genius and piano titan. When he first came to Prague in 1840, he heard and remembered Josef Theodor Krov's melody "Tešme se blahou nadejí", which was then misinterpreted as an old Hussite song. Franz Liszt, inspired by this song, has written the "Hussiten-Lied". Another Liszt’s composition you will find on this CD that is inspired by Czech/Slavic culture is "Slavimo slavno slaveni!". Naturally, Liszt left an indelible mark among Czech musicians, so you will also find Czech composers on this album.
Broadcast performances of the Fifth and Sixth symphonies complete a Sibelius cycle within the Thomas Jensen collection on Danacord. Their dramatic sweep and control demonstrate the conductor’s special affinity with this music, which he played under the composer’s direction as a cellist. Jensen worked tirelessly for Danish composers throughout his career; this volume includes newly published performances of works by three composers, now almost unknown outside their home country, who emerged from the shadow cast by Carl Nielsen to write in a distinctively individual but still quintessentially Danish idiom.
Within a mere few years, Petr Popelka has established himself as one of the world's most exciting young conductors. Serving as principal conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Symphoniker, he has also appeared as a guest with prominent European and American orchestras, as well as at opera houses worldwide. Popelka does not view Bedrich Smetana's legacy as an obligatory Czech national classic, but rather as an object of love and vital artistic quest. "His ultimate masterpiece, My Country, should be approached a bit like an opera, as a great story... As a cycle of tone poems based on the theme of the homeland, it is absolutely unique in the history of music. Most significantly, there is not a work written with greater love." Popelka's recording is not just yet another addition to the immense number of recordings of My Country. Bringing to bear his great musicality and acute sense of detail, the conductor and the orchestra have modelled a truly exceptional form. Popelka's album features other germs too. String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, "From My Life", hailing from Smetana's mature period, when the composer was completely deaf, in George Szell's brilliant orchestration. In contrast, Smetana's early music is represented by the Triumphal Symphony, dedicated to the wedding of the 24-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I to Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria, and three "Swedish" Liszt-inspired symphonic poems, based on dramas as immense as Shakespeare's Richard III and Schiller's Wallenstein. The extraordinary album marks the 200th anniversary of Smetana's birth. Lovers of spatial sound will certainly relish streaming My Country in the Dolby Atmos format. Petr Popelka conducts Smetana - with love, deep feeling and sense for detail
