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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Jiří Bělohlávek conducts Josef Suk & Britten
Recorded live for the Czech Radio at the concert of the 63rd Prague Spring International Music Festival in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House, Prague, on June 1st, 2008 A unique and symbolic encounter: the most distinguished Czech conductor of the present time and a fabulous British orchestra communicate the profound messages in the works of great national composers. Jiří Bělohlávek has mediated Czech music to orchestras and audiences worldwide, yet in 2006 – as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – he became above all a Londoner. The recording at the 2008 Prague Spring festival of Suk’s Asrael and Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem will for ever serve as evidence of the extraordinary understanding between Bělohlávek and the orchestra. The common denominator of the two works is the figure of the Angel of Death. A sad and immensely powerful inspiration for Suk was the passing away of his beloved wife Otilie and his dear teacher Antonín Dvořák. Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, dedicated to the memory of his parents, is one of the composer’s early masterpieces. The recording marks a symbolic leave-taking on the part of Bělohlávek, who after six intense years as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra is returning “home” to the Czech Philharmonic. Suk and Britten, Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – a meeting of the powerful traditions of English and Czech classical music. “There's a real lowering intensity to the first movement [of the Sinfonia da Requiem], and a manic desperation to the second, so that the consolation offered by the finale really seems to have been earned.” The Guardian, 2nd August 2012 *** “Here are two fine memories of a fruitful tenure...The BBC players respond to fevered yet cogent direction with a rare but palpable intensity.” Sunday Times, 5th August 2012 “there's absolutely no denying the impressive rigour and shrewdly calibrated dynamic control of Belohlavek's meticulously prepared conception...All told, a memorably nourishing and, by the close, profoundly moving display, which is rightly afforded an enthusiastic reception...No doubt about it, this is a release that reflects enormous credit on all concerned.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012 “here's a timely reminder of the profundity Jiri Bělohlávek could achieve during his impressive years as the BBC Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor...Bělohlávek caps Vaclav Neumann's earlier recording on Supraphon and matches the luminosity of Rafael Kubelik's interpretation on Panton” BBC Music Magazine ***** “The Britten receives a fine performance. The doom-laden opening, with its pounding drums, augurs well and you can tell that Bělohlávek has established a firm grip on the music from the outset...Though the performance of Sinfonia da Requiem is a fine one, Bělohlávek’s account of Asrael is finer still...From the outset the BBCSO projects the music strongly and eloquently.” MusicWeb International, August 2012  BBC Music Magazine
Orchestral Choice - November 2012 |
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| |  | Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27Recorded live at the Rudolfinum, Prague, on April 5-6, 2007
Suk’s Asrael – Sir Charles Mackerras’s unreleased recording with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Josef Suk began writing the funeral symphony Asrael to commemorate his teacher and father-in-law Antonín Dvořák. During the course of work, however, Fate dealt him another crushing blow: Asrael, the Angel of Death, took away Suk’s wife and Dvořák’s daughter, Otilie. The symphony is a story of a suffering whose strength seems simply unendurable, yet also a story of its overcoming, seeking solace and hope. Sir Charles Mackerras’s live recording of Asrael originated on a Good Friday, 6 April 2007, one hundred years after the symphony’s premiere. The Australian conductor had first heard about the Asrael some sixty years previously from Suk’s close friend, Václav Talich. In later years Mackerras confessed that he perceived the work in a completely different light after his daughter had died. Sir Charles conducted Suk’s Asrael during one of his last performances with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. It is also his last previously unreleased recording with this orchestra. “There are so many moments that come memorably to life in this reading...the driving energy of Mackerras's conducting is thrilling, and the combination of clarity and warmth that he finds in Suk's orchestral textures comes across impressively...it's quite simply the greatest performance I've ever heard of Asrael” International Record Review, March 2011 “Mackerras has the advantage of an orchestra that has lived and breathed this music for 100 years — it was premiered exactly a century before these concerts — and his own deep involvement with Czech music gives him persuasive insights.” Sunday Times, 20th March 2011 **** “Mackerras's performance has a wonderful objectivity about it, as well as a quiet intimacy in the more reflective moments. Superbly played, it's a perfect demonstration of why Mackerras was a great conductor, and of his ability to bring the best out of whoever and whatever he was conducting.” The Guardian, 31st March 2011 **** “The Czech Philharmonic’s live performance breathes a conviction and beneath-the-skin rapture that you won’t find in any other recording.” Financial Times, 16th April 2011 **** “Asrael encompasses formal experiment, superb orchestration, a magnificent grasp of scale and, above all, an unerring feel for catharsis...Charles Mackerras's performance encapsulates all of these qualities...Not only does he see the staggering originality of Suk's vision, but, effortlessly, he folds into his interpretation the depth of his knowledge of the Czech repertoire...this is the closest to the definitive version we have.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 ***** “Mackerras keeps a shrewdly tight rein on Suk's huge structure, while allowing impressive momentum and emotional firepower to build in the big central scherzo movement...a remarkable performance of a remarkable work.” Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 **** BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Choice - May 2011 |
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| |  | Suk - Asrael Symphony & A Summer's Tale
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| |  | Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27Live 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 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Suk - Asrael
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Libor Pesek | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Josef Suk: Asrael SymphonyThe Royal Festival Hall, London-13th November 1968
“This is an intensely dramatic, detailed Asrael, alive to the sudden changes of emotional character throughout...Terry accomplished a great deal with his two-microphone technique … [N]othing can dilute the power of the performance. Even if it had not been captured half as well, it would still be worth hearing. As it is, we can only be glad the engineering side of matters was in such capable hands … The performance is incandescent” Fanfare, May/June 2010 “[Waldhans] takes an impressively dramatic and serious approach to Asrael that certainly makes this a very tempting alternative” International Record Review, June 2012 “Let’s say straight off that it’s a splendid, often thrilling performance. The bright sound of the hall, allied to the excellent recorded set-up by engineer Geoffrey Terry, has ensured that certain moments register as seldom if ever before...This latest entrant takes a worthy and high place in the pantheon of recordings of this masterwork” MusicWeb International, October 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Suk - Symphony No. 2
Josef Suk's 'Asrael' Symphony, of a dimension worthy of Mahler, written a century ago by a man crucified by pain, is slowly finding its way into the limelight.After memorable recordings by Talich, Pesek and more recently Vladimir Ashkenazy, Walter Weller with the Belgian National Orchestra, leads us into an intimate reading of this work, written after the deaths of Suk's father-in-law, Dvorak and his young wife, Otilie. Asraël (Angel of Death) is a unique reflection upon death, where sadness, anger, resignation and the overcoming of pain form an extraordinary storyline, a combination of intimacy and remarkable fullness of sound. Rarely recorded, the work that completes this programme will be of interest to all fans of Czech music and of works inspired by the war: Legend of the Dead Victors is Suk's tribute to the Czech soldiers who died during World War I; an extraordinary short piece suggesting another vision of how to overcome death. Walter Weller is regularly invited as guest conductor throughout the world and has held a number of prestigious titles with orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. Since the 2007/08 season, he has held the post of Music Director to the National Orchestra of Belgium and has toured to Spain in addition to concerts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In Scotland,Walter Weller has the special distinction of being pictured on the £50-note. “We are never in any doubt that Walter Weller feels the music deeply and has his players well-disciplined to give their all. His tempos are well-chosen...It is, in one sense, the most intimate performance of Asrael currently available, and one that stresses the work's Mahlerian affinities to an unusual degree.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2010 **** | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | 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 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Talich Special Edition 10
Recorded 1952 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27
Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Kirill Petrenko | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Awards 2011
Gramophone Magazine
