This CD brings together compositions from slightly more than a hundred years, featuring treatments of the ‘railroad’ theme which are now idyllic or impressionistic, now realistic or even smacking of social criticism, but in classical form.The variety of forms and wealth of ideas in these compositions from France, Sweden, the U.S.A., Brazil, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and Germany even surprised the conductor on this CD, Jir¡i Stárek – whose father was a railroad worker …
Such diverse musicians as the Strauss family dynasty in Vienna, Antonín Dvorák and Arthur Honegger, were all infected with railroad fever. The feeling of intoxication induced by sheer speed, the implacability of mechanical forces, the menace inherent in acceleration, the clatter of the wheels, the whistling and hooting of the valves, but also the stillness following a thunderous journey – all these are found with varying degrees of accentuation in the colorful and exciting orchestral works featured on this disc.
