SACDs - Suk

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Josef Suk: Orchestral Works

Josef Suk: Orchestral Works


Suk:

Praga. Symphonic Poem, Op. 26

A Summer's Tale, Op. 29


Two symphonic poems by Suk are performed here by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek, who also brought us the highly acclaimed recording of the composer’s First Symphony and Ripening, which was Disc of the Month in the magazine BBC Music.

A Summer’s Tale is a highly personal work, rich and imaginative, not to mention brilliantly orchestrated in late romantic style. The work followed the heartfelt and sorrowful outpouring of the Asrael Symphony of 1905 – 06, composed in memory of his father-in-law, Antonín Dvořák, and wife, Otilka.

In the words of the composer: ‘After wild fleeing I find consolation in nature’. The jubilation of the opening ‘Voices of Life and Consolation’ is thought to emphasise nature’s healing powers and the composer’s putting a positive face to the world after the bleakness of Asrael. ‘Midday’ depicts the all-embracing heat of noon, while the Intermezzo, ‘Blind Musicians’, expresses compassion for those who can never appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. The storm and wild longing of ‘In the Power of Phantoms’ give way finally to the mystical calm of ‘Night’.

The Symphonic Poem Prague is likewise strongly personal and atmospheric, speaking of the history and mystery of Suk’s home city, its troubles and its triumphs. The opening section conjures up a picture of the early morning mists rising from the Vltava, the river flowing through the city. The mists begin to lift and the ancient fortress of Vyšehrad emerges high above on its rock. Gradually the mists disperse and Prague appears in all its glory in the sunlight. The mood then darkens, now speaking of past troubled times; but the work ends on a jubilant note, in a triumphant blaze of glory.

“Belohlavek's pacing enhances Suk's abundant inspiration, often with intoxicating results. Throughout, the BBC Symphony Orchestra responds magnificently as an ensemble, bringing an almost operatic excitement to Prague...Both performances stand very high measured against the exacting tradition of some great Czech performances and are well served by this excellent recording.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 *****

“The language is highly wrought – late-romantic, with just occasional hints that Suk may have been aware of the musical world that Debussy had revealed – and Suk's models were presumably were Dvor˘ák's late symphonic poems. But Suk's efforts lack the conciseness and the dramatic instincts of his mentor's.” The Guardian, 29th August 2012 ***

“Excellent performances: Belohlávek has done wonders to acquaint us with the lesser-known Czech repertoire.” Financial Times, 15th September 2012 ****

“The orchestral sound may not be distinctively Czech, but the vibrant playing is full of character and brings the work ['Prague'] alive brilliantly...They bring the same dedication to A Summer's Tale...Bělohlávek and the BBC SO make a powerful and impassioned case for this intense work, one that deserves to be much wider known.” bbc.co.uk, 11th September 2012

“the Czech woodwinds are inimitably individual...Belohlavek holds the tension in both pieces from the first bar to the last. Wonderful.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012

“in this superb performance, it is the introspective passages [of 'Prague'] that impress and move.” Sunday Times, 14th October 2012

BBC Music Magazine

Disc of the month - October 2012

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2013

Orchestral Finalist

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Chandos - CHSA5109

(SACD)

$17.25

(also available to download from $10.75)

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27

Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27

Live recording


"I was saved by music," wrote Czech composer Josef Suk about his 'Asrael' Symphony, a work born out of tragedy and the loss of his teacher Antonín Dvorák in 1904. While composing the first part of a funeral symphony named after the biblical angel of death, who leads souls of deceased to the land of eternal blissfulness, Suk also lost his wife, and Dvorák's favourite daughter, Otilie. Suk's greatest work remains a masterpiece of the late-Romantic repertoire conducted in a masterful and intense performance, by Vladimir Askenazy. First SACD of this repertoire.

“Finished in 1906, Josef Suk's symphony Asrael is one of the world's more neglected masterpieces. It's tumultuous, high-protein music, rich in grief yet life-enhancing, inspired by two deaths in the composer's family: first his father-in-law, Dvorák, then his wife. Ashkenazy's special feeling for Central European repertoire is much in evidence, and there's no Scandinavian cold about the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra” The Times, 7th February 2009 ****

“If Asrael is Suk’s masterpiece, then here’s a recording to match it” Evening Standard, 28th Jan 2009 ****

“Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Helsinki orchestra give a searing account of this neglected masterpiece” Sunday Telegraph, 22 Feb 2009

“As Rafael Kubelík's uniquely powerful (and idiomatic) Bavarian Radio tape… currently elusive, there's certainly room for Ashkenazy's marginally fleeter, cleaner, texturally airier conception. He holds together the sometimes disjunct finale with skill, avoiding any hint of lassitude or bombast; the understated optimism and luminosity of the coda I found most moving.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009

“Ashkenazy stresses the lyricism as well as the anguish of Suk's score; this is a performance of great dignity and nobility, with fine attention to detail, especially in the often complex woodwind writing. …the recording sound is outstanding: the effect of the first movement's coda, for instance, with its keening violins, minatory brass fanfares and remorseless bass drum beats, is overwhelming.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2009 ****

“Ashkenazy and the Helsinki Philharmonic find their way through this sprawling landscape of grief with an impressive sensitivity but it's a long, painful journey to the calm of the C major resolution.” The Observer, 8th March 2009

“As Rafael Kubelík's uniquely powerful (and idiomatic) Bavarian Radio tape (see below) is currently elusive, there's certainly room for Ashkenazy's marginally fleeter, cleaner, texturally airier conception. He holds together the sometimes disjunct finale with skill, avoiding any hint of lassitude or bombast; the understated optimism and luminosity of the coda is most moving.
This hybrid SACD, a live recording from which applause has been excised, comes with helpful booklet-notes by Jan Smaczny. Helsinki's Finlandia Hall may look better than it sounds but its acoustic presents no problems to this production team.”
Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

GGramophone Magazine

Editor's Choice - May 2009

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Ondine - 20% off

Ondine - ODE11325

(SACD)

Normally: $17.25

Special: $13.80

(also available to download from $10.75)

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Josef Suk: Orchestral Works

Josef Suk: Orchestral Works


Suk:

Symphony in E major, Op. 14

The Ripening, Op. 34

with New London Chamber Choir


The Czech maestro Jiří Bělohlávek performs works by his countryman Josef Suk, conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom he is their Chief Conductor.

As a composer, Josef Suk followed in the tradition of Smetana and Dvořák, the latter of whom was not only his professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also became his father-in-law – Suk married Dvořák’s oldest surviving daughter, Otilie, in 1898, and the death of Dvořák in 1904 and ‘Otilka’ a year later resulted in the composition of one of the composer’s most powerful and deeply felt works, the Asrael Symphony – also recorded by Bělohlávek (CHAN 9640).

Like Novák – another key Dvořák pupil – Suk fully embraced his national background, composing in a late romantic style imbued with his individual approach to impressionism and native folk culture.

Following the success of his Serenade in E flat, Suk wished to take up the challenge of writing a symphony, influenced as he was by the contributions to the genre of his own teacher, and of Brahms. Suk’s First Symphony was actually begun in London in 1897 and completed two years later. This new CD provides an excellent opportunity to hear the rarely recorded early work, with its fresh melodic appeal and inventive orchestration.

Ripening is one of the composer’s masterpieces, a highly colourful and superbly sustained symphonic poem, brilliantly orchestrated, with a chorus making its wordless contribution at the work’s late, emotional highpoint. Suk said of Ripening: ‘I worked on this composition for almost five years. In its very cohesive musical form you will find all degrees of human emotions. In this piece I immerse myself once more into the joys and tragic shadows of life but towards the end I emphasise, in the large fugue, that work is the liberator. After a large and passionate build-up of tension and excitement, towards the end a deep calm arrives in which, however, shimmers a hymn of affirmation and life.’

“Ripening, a symphonic poem, is a highly charged piece, full of poignant emotion and anguished outbursts. Its power is echoed by the First Symphony...in which Belohlávek inspires the BBCSO to a blazing performance.” The Telegraph, 2nd September 2010 ****

“The symphony is attractively neat and satisfying, but Ripening is on a completely new emotional plane, with a Mahlerian juxtaposition of emotions, a scintillating emotional thrust and a virtuoso handling of the orchestra...What you hear on the CD is as much an astonishing testament to the abilities of modern day sound engineers as it is a fine performance.” Classic FM Magazine, December 2010 *****

“Jiri Belohlávek's tender reading of this 1917 symphonic poem is flooded with dewy woodwind and glowing strings.” The Independent, 21st November 2010

BBC Music Magazine

Disc of the month - November 2010

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Chandos - CHSA5081

(SACD)

$17.25

(also available to download from $10.75)

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)

Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27

Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27


Josef Suk began writing his Asrael Symphony in 1904 as a memorial to his revered teacher Antonin Dvorak, who had recently died. He had completed the first three movements when, in 1905, his young wife Otylka – the daughter of Dvorak – also passed away. Devastated, the composer turned the work into a requiem for the two, completing it in 1906. He gave it the subtitle Asrael, the angel of death, who in the Islamic faith leads the souls of the departed to paradise.

“A real treat - Suk's Asrael in a thrilling account by the Malaysian Philharmonic. Its quality of articulation and attack is thrilling in the turbulent Scherzo, the ardour of the playing throughout akin to that of a top-class youth orchestra.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2009

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

BIS - BISSACD1776

(SACD)

$17.25

(also available to download from $10.75)

Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)

Suk & Dvorak - Suites

Suk & Dvorak - Suites


Dvorak:

Czech Suite, Op. 39

Suk:

A Fairy Tale, Op. 16


Zdenek Macal conducts the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in these delightful Czech Suites.

“Mácal gets a beautifully characterized response from his players from start to finish. And the clear, warm recorded sound is state-of-the-art.” Classic FM Magazine, June 2009 *****

“Idiomatic readings of two Czech suites. You could hardly find performers more understanding than Mácal and the Czech Philharmonic.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2009

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Stereo

Exton - OVCL00296

(SACD)

$20.75

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days.

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