Classical Music

Classical Music

DVO?ÁK String Quartets Nos. 10-14. Cypresses • Panocha Qrt • SUPRAPHON SU4048-2 (3 CDs: 202:46)


Supraphon is finding new and exciting ways to encourage you to sample the Panocha’s much-admired 1983–95 recordings of Dvo?ák’s string quartets. Should you have collected some individual volumes and run out of steam, you now have the chance to acquire this slimline three-CD set containing the last five quartets, and Cypresses in the bargain. But if you bought the box set of all the quartets and have seldom played the early ones—I shouldn’t think it likely, but it is, I suppose, possible —then it’s also the case that you might cast a jaundiced eye over this selection of the best-known works and wonder why you didn’t hold out.


Whatever you may or may not have done, one can hardly argue with a label that seeks to maximize profits this way, or, to put it another way, to reinvestigate means by which to propagate its recorded legacy and that of its artists. The Panocha is a highly distinguished group, certainly, but it has its rivals, current and past. It also rivals itself, given that it’s made other recordings of this repertoire for other labels. For example, almost a decade after recording Nos. 10 and 14, it rerecorded them for Camerata (28093). The “new” Panocha proved here to be a touch fleeter than the old. James H. North certainly admired both accounts in Fanfare 32:1, as do I, though I like the Prague Quartet’s DG accounts equally, in their very different ways. There is more pathos in the Prague recordings, made between 1973 and 1977, but their heavier bowing and boomier acoustic accords them a somewhat inflated sound. This may or may not please, but it is certainly to be distinguished from the Panocha’s lighter collective qualities.


Another leading Czech group, the Stamitz, has also recorded the full set and most impressively. It’s now to be had complete on Brilliant 99949. They tend to relax just that bit more than their rivals, but evince a genuinely memorable approach. They are very convincing in the op. 106 quartet but in its rather cavernous, distant way, so too is the Prague. Many contemporary ensembles take this quartet in a quasi-symphonic way, piling it with almost neurotic intensity. Fortunately none of these three Czech groups do that. Indeed the Panocha plays with discretion and appropriate tonal weight, arguably a touch more vibrant than either the Stamitz or the Prague in the slow movement.


One can argue the swings and roundabouts of this all day. I find the Prague a touch more patrician in phrasing than either the Stamitz or Panocha, but oddly, rather more openly expressive in a number of the slow movements. Perhaps Cypresses offers a clue: The Panocha plays the fourth, a poco adagio , as a recollected-in-tranquility elegy. The Prague, meanwhile, prefers a more measured melancholy. The difference is between the heightened mobility of the Panocha and the stately reflection of the Prague, a pretty accurate reflection of the expressive differences generally. This also applies to the Panocha’s recent remake, again on Camerata (CMCD-28206), where it’s coupled with Quartet No. 13


Where does this leave us? This three-CD set offers the bulk of Dvo?ák’s greatest quartets, or “The Essential String Quartets” as the cover puts it, in idiomatic, beautifully nuanced readings. The complete set is on Supraphon 3815-2, but this selection of the last quartets contains recordings that are, even in a crowded field, among the best around.


FANFARE: Jonathan Woolf

Collectors and admirers of Dvorak’s music bearing the hallmark of the Czech performance tradition can now add another comprehensive album to put alongside the previous complete Supraphon CDs mapping his chamber, piano, and symphonic works. The acclaimed recording of the symphonies, conducted by Vaclav Neumann, is now followed by Supraphon’s 8-CD box set featuring Dvorak’s orchestral pieces and concertos. In addition to the celebrated Slavonic Dances, it contains a number of rarely recorded symphonic works (the Hussite Overture, My Home, A Hero’s Song), as well as splendid compositions for chamber and string orchestras. Besides recordings made under the baton of Neumann, it provides scope to other great Dvorak conductors – Mackerras, Belohlavek and the rising star Jakub Hruša. The set of orchestral works is rounded off by recordings of concertos, ranging from the virtually unknown Cello Concerto in A major, written by the young Dvorak, to the most frequently performed, the Cello Concerto in B minor. Supraphon has again carefully put together top-quality and time-honoured recordings of works performed by world-renowned soloists.

DVO?ÁK Piano Works (Complete) • Radoslav Kvapil (pn) • SUPRAPHON 4018 (4 CDs: 282:07)


DVO?ÁK Silhouettes, op. 8. 2 Minuets, op. 28. Dumka, op. 35. Theme and Variations, op. 36. Scottish Dances, op. 41. Furiants: in D, op. 42/1; in F, op. 42/2. Waltzes, op. 54. Eclogues, op. 56. Moderato in A, B 116. Album Leaves, B 109. 6 Piano Pieces, op. 52. Mazurkas, op. 56. Impromptu in d, B 129. Dumka, B 136. Furiant, B 137. Humoresque in F?, B 138. Suite in A, op. 98. 2 Piano Pieces, B 188. Humoresques, op. 101. Poetic Moods, op. 85


These recordings have been around for the better part of half a century, having been recorded between 1967 and 1970. It appears that the Fanfare Archive goes back only to 1991, so I don’t know if these discs were ever reviewed separately or as a set in these pages, but what I can tell you is that despite Suprahphon’s claim to the contrary, the contents of this four-disc set are close to but not quite Dvo?ák’s complete works for solo piano. Missing, for example, are the Polka, B 3; the Question , B 128a; and the Two Little Pearls , B 156, all three of which are included in Stefan Veselka’s more comprehensive five-disc collection on Naxos. But then one must allow for the fact that at the time Kvapil recorded these works, Dvo?ák scholarship was still in a state of flux. There were—and still are, to some extent—discrepancies in the dating and numbering of the composer’s works, and it’s possible that 40-plus years ago when these recordings were made, some of the composer’s smaller, miscellaneous works were not known.


It has been often said that Dvo?ák was, at best, a pianist of modest abilities. Or as noted critic Harold Schoenberg said of the composer’s piano concerto, “Dvo?ák wrote an attractive Piano Concerto in G Minor with a rather ineffective piano part.” He was master instead of violin and viola. Thus, his works for keyboard have been largely relegated to secondary status among his output. Most of the pieces fall into basically one of two categories: (1) short sketches gathered together in collections or volumes, such as the Silhouettes, Humoresques, Album Leaves, and Poetic Moods , that evoke a variety of atmospheric states without being explicitly descriptive or programmatic; and (2) genre-specific musical forms, such as the waltzes, mazurkas, and Minuets. A third, miscellaneous category serves to trap the stand-alone pieces, like the Moderato in A Major and the Impromptu in D Minor, as well as the Suite in A Major, the composer’s one attempt at an integrated multimovement work.


Some of the pieces, like the ninth of the Silhouettes , for example, reveal the influence of Schumann, while the virtuosic concluding number in that collection belies a composer who was merely mediocre at the keyboard. If the Scottish Dances were meant to sound Scottish, they don’t, unless this Scot has traded his kilt for a Czech kirtle. And if an eclogue, at least according to the dictionary, is supposed to be “a pastoral or idyllic poem, usually in the form of a dialogue between shepherds,” Dvo?ák’s flock of Eclogues contains some pretty dyspeptic-sounding sheep. The waltzes recall Chopin, while Schumann’s shade once again hovers over the Six Piano Pieces. Chopin is expected in the mazurkas, but he doesn’t show up. Instead, what we get may be, along with the Humoresques , the most Czech-flavored and echt -sounding Dvo?ák in the entire collection. The A-Major Suite may sound familiar to listeners, as it has come to enjoy a degree of popularity in its composer-orchestrated guise. If any composer comes to mind in the Poetic Moods , it would have to be Grieg. The eighth piece in the series, titled “Goblins’ Dance,” is reminiscent of the Norwegian’s gnomes and trolls.


Listening to these four discs, I draw the following conclusions: First, without exception, all of this music is very appealing, and much of it is quite beautiful, something, frankly, I didn’t expect based on received opinion of Dvo?ák’s piano music. Second, based on what seems to me to be the technical difficulties presented to the player by many of these pieces, I suspect that Dvo?ák knew his way around the piano better than we have been led to believe. And third, the composer was clearly influenced by Chopin, Schumann, and Grieg.


As to the performances and recordings, my observations are that Radoslav Kvapil is a superb pianist who manages to capture the character and mood of every single one of these pieces with a perfect combination of technical flair and emotional feeling. And to my ears these four-decade-old recordings sound mint-fresh. Whichever version you acquire Dvo?ák’s piano works I guarantee you will not be disappointed in the music.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

This 4-disc set contains all of Dvorák’s piano quartets and quintets, plus his string quintets, the Sextet, and the Intermezzo (Nocturne) for string quintet–a movement that journeyed from the Fourth String Quartet to the Double Bass Quintet (the arrangement here), finally winding up as the Nocturne for String Orchestra. It remains one of the most harmonically forward-looking and poignant pieces that Dvorák ever wrote, and it’s no wonder that he loved it. One of the great things about the internet is the fact that everyone can use it to express their opinion. One of the worst things about the internet is that everyone can use it to express their opinion. In the latter category we find a whole host of what I call “dot-com cowards,” anonymous posters who feel they have a duty to share their views with the rest of us without having the guts or decency to stand behind their opinions by letting us know just who they are. Many of these people post on Amazon.com, where one such moron described these performances as “insensitive” and “heavy-handed,” and among the worst available.

It’s a pity, really, that such people are given a forum to display their ignorance, the evidence of which is strengthened by their need for anonymity and enchanting freedom from any feeling of obligation to describe a performance accurately. It’s not that I personally disagree with their judgment. It’s rather that the statements of what purport to be musical facts are audibly untrue. Consider, for example, the Panocha Quartet’s performance of finale of the “American” String Quintet. Is this “heavy handed?” Or how about the Suk Trio in the Second Piano Quartet’s first movement. Insensitive? Please.

The fact that we are dealing with Czech musicians does not guarantee that they will be successful in Czech music. The reason that these are great performances stems from the fact that they are played by great musicians generally. The Panocha Quartet is one of the supreme ensembles of its kind, period. The Suk Trio, similarly, which tackles the two Piano Quartets, is a superb ensemble, and not just in Dvorák (try their Beethoven). Anyone reading this will already know to take the random “reviews” posted on sales sites with a big grain of salt, but it still infuriates me to see audibly first class performances maligned by people too cowardly even to post their names.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The lute, undoubtedly the most popular instrument of European townsfolk and aristocrats in the 16th and 17th centuries, was widely played in Prague during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II. A manuscript of lute tablatures known as the Codex Jacobides was in all likelihood written by a musically gifted student of the Prague University in the early 17th century. It features notations of period dances, intabulations of songs, and vocal polyphonic secular and sacred pieces; miniatures of German, English, French, Italian, Polish and Spanish provenience. Extremely intriguing are the intabulations of vocal villanelle by Jacob Regnart, who served as Kapellmeister at Rudolf II’s court in Prague. Originally set to German texts, these pieces had found their way from Prague Castle to the city beneath, where – furnished with Czech lyrics – they lived a life of their own. The Codex Jacobides also contains works by Michael Praetorius, John Dowland and Jean Planson. Jan Cižmár studied the lute in London and The Hague with true masters (J. Lindberg, N. North, J. Held, M. Fentross, C. Pluhar), and today he is a sought-after soloist and chamber musician, performing worldwide. On the album, eight string instruments of various sizes and tunings are heard in a number of combinations, occasionally accompanied by a flute or lute ensemble and voice. Affording a taste of the music performed in Prague under Rudolf II, the album is a true delicacy for connoisseurs and all music lovers alike. Lute music that during the reign of Rudolf II was played in Prague streets and taverns, as well as at the local university.

Antonín Dvorák needs no introduction – neither in his homeland nor anywhere else in the world. But how widely known are his piano works? The Piano Concerto in G minor has recently enjoyed a degree of revived interest, yet Dvorák’s pieces for solo piano are in the main an unexplored landscape even for many pianists and musicologists. More’s the pity! They do not possess Chopin’s sway and finely nuanced emotionality, or Liszt’s ostentatious virtuosity. Just as he did in his entire oeuvre, in his piano works Dvorák eschewed flashiness, focusing instead on tender intimate lyricism, teeming with ideas, and shaping even his miniatures with the sensibility of a genius. Such music is certainly worthy of a new complete recording. The challenge was undertaken by Ivo Kahánek, an artist whose recording of Dvorák’s difficult Piano Concerto made with the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Jakub Hruša has deservedly gained critical acclaim and even won the coveted BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award. The present 4-album set encompasses cycles (Silhouettes, Poetic Moods and the Suite in A major, composed in the US, which Dvorák himself valued greatly), occasional pieces, as well as several little-known works, recorded for the very first time. One such is the polka Forget-me-not, Dvorák’s first surviving miniature, written when he was 14 years of age. The recording of piano works provides yet another precious insight into the abundant world of the composer’s soul. Dvorák’s rich inner world expressed through the piano.

Antonin Dvorak; Josef Suk Josef Suk; Czech Philharmonic ORchestra; Vaclav Neumann Dvorak Violin Concerto and Suk Fantasy: Josef Suk, Violin

This is a set that no one who cares about Dvorák’s symphonies can afford to ignore. These performances really do belong in every serious collection.

Supraphon has finally released Václav Neumann’s 1970s Dvorák symphony cycle, and what a wonderful event it is. These performances are, on the whole, fresher and freer than his digital remakes, fine though those are, and more warmly recorded. The only exception is the somewhat shrill engineering in the First Symphony, but in general the sonics are comparable to other cycles of the period—Kertész, Kubelik, and Rowicki—and this is unquestionably the best played of them all. It’s difficult to overestimate the value of having the Czech Philharmonic in top form in this music, but the sound of the ensemble really does speak for itself. Kubelik’s Berlin Philharmonic might have the best strings, and the London Symphony for Kertész and Rowicki the boldest horns, but the Czech Philharmonic has the best ensemble, top to bottom, at least in Dvorák.

Consider one example: the climax of the first movement of the Seventh Symphony, a work that shows both the orchestra and Neumann at their very best. If you imprinted on this performance, nothing else can match it in power and intensity. The passionate lyricism of the strings, the thrilling low timpani roll that propels the trombones’ upward arpeggio, and those bright, sforzando trumpets combine to make an unforgettable impression (sound clip below), and it’s all exactly as Dvorák wrote it. Interestingly, where Neumann deviates from the printed page, as in the main theme’s fortissimo counterstatement in the first movement, or in the work’s concluding chorale, he gives the doubling parts to the trumpets rather than the horns, as in most other performances, and this too proves the better decision.

This brings us to Neumann’s own contribution. Traditionally he has gotten short shrift compared to the competition. Some of this was politics. In the 1960s and ’70s the British naturally preferred anything featuring the LSO, and Kubelik was a symbol of democratic resistance to Communist rule. He also had the superb Berlin Philharmonic at his disposal, rather than his usual Bavarian Radio forces, and Deutsche Grammophon behind him. Neumann, on LP at least, was spottily available on generally horrible pressings, and he had the disadvantage to be taking over from Ancerl, an indisputably great conductor who wound up on the right side of Cold War politics. Then Neumann remade all the symphonies in digital sound, a set that Supraphon promoted intensely, and this earlier effort simply disappeared from sight.

In general, Neumann’s approach might sound a touch “old fashioned”—quick movements move at moderate speeds, slow movements flow without ever dragging. Although not quite so slow in the allegros, conductors like Otto Klemperer come to mind. And yet, Neumann is by no means lacking in energy. His Eighth Symphony is as fresh (and swift) as any in the catalog. He whips up quite a frenzy in the finale of the Fifth, and this Third Symphony might just be the best on disc. Its first movement is as energetic as can be, the central funeral march is gorgeous and never stiff, while the finale actually sounds less mechanical at this moderate speed than it does when taken more quickly. The Sixth seldom has been paced more naturally, and as Dvorák fans all know, Ancerl’s benchmark performance is a tough act to follow. Neumann has nothing to fear from the comparison, especially in the coda of the finale, which is stunning.

Neumann always did well by the “New World” Symphony, and in only a few spots in the first two symphonies does Neumann sound less than fully engaged (though in the former, he’s still more effective than in his digital remake). The third movement of the Second, particularly, needs to be crisper. Suitner on Berlin Classics is unmatched here. For the most part, though, Neumann’s performances have held up extremely well. In particular, he offers an object lesson in phrasing and, especially, the correct use of legato in lyrical passages. So many performances today, perhaps encouraged by the perpetual staccato of the early music movement, break up Dvorák’s melodies into fragments, whereas Neumann conducts in whole paragraphs.

The couplings add greatly to this set’s attractions. They are uniformly excellent. The Symphonic Variations overflows with character; the three concert overtures belong together (they share a theme, heard at the outset of In Nature’s Realm), and these versions of the four late symphonic poems rank with the best available. They are also very well recorded. So to summarize, this is a set that no one who cares about Dvorák’s symphonies can afford to ignore. Even if you have the versions just mentioned, these performances really do belong in every serious collection.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

2018 Gramophone Magazine Chamber Recording of the Year

Seven years after they triumphed with Dvorák’s quartets, Pavel Haas Quartet are back to Dvorák. For the occasion of recording his quintets, they have invited two guests: the pianist Boris Giltburg (winner of 2013 Queen Elizabeth Competition), as well as one of the PHQ founding members, violist Pavel Nikl. Antonín Dvorák composed his Piano Quintet No. 2 while staying at his beloved summer house in Vysoká in the late summer of 1887. The renowned critic Eduard Hanslick responded to its performance in Vienna enthusiastically: "It is one of his most beautiful works. A genuine Dvorák.“ The String Quintet op. 97, albeit only six years younger, presents a completely "different Dvorák“. After the Symphony from the New World and the “American” quartet, the string quintet is the composer’s third work written in America. Besides drawing inspiration from the music of the Native American tribe of the Iroquois which he heard in Spillville in the summer of 1893, he built the third movement around a theme that he had previously considered using in a proposal for a new American anthem. And Hanslick’s testimonial? "This is probably the simplest, most natural and happiest music composed since Haydn’s times. The ear enjoys it with an easy-going attitude and the spirit is not bored for a single moment.“ Pavel Haas Quartet is at home in Dvorák’s music – to quote the Sunday Times, "In this repertoire, they are simply matchless today.“

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REVIEW:

It is the happiest of reunions and their sense of shared purpose is evident from the very start. Giltburg is completely at one with the quartet, who set off full of sighing pathos. From the off, they make the music their own; their sense of story-telling is very persuasive. Another triumphant addition to the Pavel Haas’s already Award-laden discography.

– Gramophone

To mark the 180th anniversary of Antonín Dvorák’s birth, Supraphon has released a special 3-album set. Presenting a wide selection of the composer’s chamber, orchestral and vocal works, it contains recordings made by superb musicians in the second half of the 20th century that are still exemplary and unrivalled in many a respect. Dvorák is paid tribute to by renowned Czech Philharmonic conductors (Talich, Ancerl, Neumann, Belohlávek, Sawallisch, Mackerras, and others), instrumentalists (Rostropovich, May, Suk and Panenka), singers (Soukupová, Benacková, Urbanová, Blachut, Novák), choirmasters (Jan and Pavel Kühn), as well as the Prague, Dvorák, Smetana and Panocha Quartets. The album’s repertoire was compiled by Patrick Lambert, a former long-time music editor and BBC Radio 3 producer, a great lover and connoisseur of Czech music, who focused on the themes to which Antonín Dvorák had a strong, passionate affinity: the Nation and Homeland, the Slavonic Soul, Nature, God and Religion, Family and Humour. Besides widely known opuses (yet in lesser-known recordings), the album features many beautiful Dvorák pieces that are not performed overly often, including the cycles In Nature’s Realm, Love Songs and Poetic Moods, the Serenade for Wind Instruments, and scenes from the operas Dimitrij and The Jacobin. As Patrick Lambert puts it: “The new album is for everyone who wants to revel in the sheer diversity and profundity of Dvorák’s music.” Antonín Dvorák at his most beautiful – through the eyes of a great connoisseur and lover of his music

ANTONIN DVORAK: Eduard Haken; Milada Subrtova; Ivo Zidek; Marie Ovcacikova; Prague National Theatre/Zdenek Chalabala. ANTONIN DVORAK: Rusalka.

Includes quartet(s) for strings by Antonín Dvorák. Ensemble: Panocha String Quartet. Soloists: Pavel Zejfart, Miroslav Sehnoutka, Jaroslav Kulhan, Jiri Panocha.

This second volume of miscellaneous chamber works contains all of the music that is not a formal quartet, quintet, or sextet. In includes the piano trios, the wonderful Terzetto for two violins and viola, works for solo instrument and piano, pieces for piano four-hands, and all of those little, undefinable works, some of which (such as the Bagatelles for two violins, cello, and harmonium) are magnificent. As a taste of just how good Dvorák could be even in his slightest works, try out [a] sample, from his Serenade for Flute, Violin, Viola, and Triangle. One of the lesser-known big works is the cycle From the Bohemian Forest for piano four hands, from which the popular Silent Woods for cello and piano derives. But there’s much more than that, including a rather jolly “Witches’ Sabbath”.

The performances are all excellent, although I do wish Supraphon had retained the Suk Trio in the piano trios, fine as the Guarneri Trio Prague undoubtedly is. The piano duo of Igor and Renata Ardasev does very well by the Slavonic Dances, the Legends, and From the Bohemian Forest. Indeed the Slavonic Dances feature prominently in this set, not just in their original keyboard form but in their several arrangements for solo strings and piano. Josef Suk plays the major works for violin, and you don’t get much more authoritative than that, though he is ably seconded by Pavel Sporcl filling in the gaps. Members of the Panocha Quartet take on the pieces for multiple strings with their usual sovereign brilliance.

The sonics, whether analog or digital, are pretty much excellent, making this set an obvious and fool-proof way of getting your Dvorák chamber music collection up to snuff in one easy shot.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com