ALEXANDER MOYZES
(1906-84)
Symphony No. 1 (1929) 41.11
Symphony No. 2 (1932/41)
36.47
Slovak RSO/Ladislav
Slovak
MARCO POLO 8.225088
[78.05]
Although we know quite a few names from the Czech Republic, Slovakian composers
have enjoyed less of the limelight. From the first half of the twentieth
century Moyzes, Eugen Suchon and Jan Cikker were the foremost composers of
their generation in Slovakia. Each have had a few works recorded but their
music's progress has been glacial.
The Moyzes First Symphony betrays a Mahlerian sympathy mixed in with the
voices of Richard Strauss, Franz Schmidt and early Szymanowski. Density and
richness of texture are not one and the same and in the first movement Moyzes
leans towards density and coagulation rather than anything else. His thematic
invention at these moments does not compensate sufficiently although he comes
close at 11.28 where he launches a romantic melody ranking with Prokofiev's
Romeo and Juliet. The deeply felt adagio is better - taking life from
Suk's Wenceslas Meditation and Debussy's La Mer. The wind-dominated
scherzo skips sturdily along and leads into a finale which is successful
when it is light and blissfully wraith-like (a latter-day Berlioz) but which
becomes ponderous and congested whenever Moyzes reaches for heroism and the
drums.
The work was premiered by its dedicatee Oskar Nedbal in Bratislava in 1929.
The Second Symphony was premiered in Bratislava in 1942. This is more jagged;
more rugged (Prokofiev's 'parade-ground' style as in Symphony No. 4 and Love
of Three Oranges) - as much touched with cataclysm as the Kurt Weill symphonies
(recently re-heard by me in Gary Bertini's impressive performances on
EMI Matrix). It still finds time for a lengthy dream-like interlude
reminiscent of the nostalgic homecoming theme from Hugo Friedhofer's music
for 'The Best Years of Our Lives'. Moyzes also finds time for some Straussian
solo violin passages. The first of the two movements plays for sixteen minutes
while the second runs to twenty. At 2.12 a Prokofiev-like piquancy
(Classical Symphony and the music-box episodes from Romeo and
Juliet) enters the fray. Moyzes is at his best in delicacy and at his
most prone to self-indulgence in the extremes of emotion. A ruminative
meandering overhangs most of the end of the movement which plays out
hypnotically.
Sad to note that the conductor died last year. We can hope that Marco Polo,
who recorded these two symphonies in 1993 and 1994, have recorded some, or
better yet, all of the other ten Moyzes symphonies and will gradually release
them.
There are decent notes and recording quality though there are some strange
moments of odd perspective. Also the recording is overly warm.
For confirmed explorers of obscurity. There is some rewarding music here
once you allow for the several overblown episodes. The First Symphony is
a priority and the first movement of the Second is decidedly worth your precious
listening time.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Note - there is also a Marco Polo CD of Moyzes' Gemer Dances, Down
the River Vah and Pohronie Dances that are likely to be worth
exploring.
