Volume 1
Two Minuets Op.28 B58 (1876-77)
Dumka in D minor Op.35 B64 (1876)
Theme with Variations in A flat major
Op.36 B65 (1876)
Three Album Leaves (1880-88)
Eight Waltzes Op.54 B101 (1880)
Recorded in Studio 10 DeutschlandRadio,
Berlin, April 1999
NAXOS 8.557474 [64.32]
Volume 2
Two Furiants Op.42 B85 (1878)
Four Eclogues Op.56 B103 (1880)
Six Pieces Op.52 B110 (1880)
Compositions without title (1880-88)
Recorded in Studio 10 DeutschlandRadio,
Berlin, April 1999
NAXOS 8.557475 [56.51]
Volume 3
Dumka and Furiant Op.12 B136 and B137
(1884)
Two Little Pearls B156 (1887)
Poetic Tone Pictures Op.85 B161 (1889)
Recorded at the Sonia-Henie Art Centre
in February 1995 and in Sofienberg Church,
Oslo, February 1995
NAXOS 8.557476 [71.29]
Volume 4
Eight Humoresques Op.101 B187 (1892-95)
Six Mazurkas Op.56 B111 (1880)
Silhouettes Op.8 B98 (1879)
Recorded at Stavanger Concert Hall in
June 1998
NAXOS 8.557477 [63.56]
Volume 5
Polka in E major B3 (1860)
Scottish Dances Op.41 B74 (1877)
Humoresque B138 (1884)
Impromptu B129 (1883)
Suite in A "American" Op.98
B184 (1894)
Two Pieces Op Posthumous B188 (1894)
Recorded in Studio 10 DeutschlandRadio,
Berlin, April 1999
NAXOS 8.557478 [38.29]
Stefan Veselka (piano)
NAXOS 8.505205 [5 CDs as above
issued in slipcase]
Dvořák’s
solo piano music has never been entirely
absent from the discography but it has
had scant attention in the concert hall.
From the days of Jan Heřman in
the 1920s and 1930s, whose Ultraphon
records demand reissue – there
were
Czech pianists before Firkušny and Maxian
and Heřman set down four of the
Humoresques, for instance – assiduous
collectors could at least garner a selection.
But apart from individual smatterings
from native artists such as Knotková
and Štepánek the return was small
before the LP and the later arrival
of the set by Radoslav Kvapil, which
has been the Gold Standard for this
body of work. It is therefore a matter
for rejoicing that as this Naxos set
is issued we hear that Regis
is re-releasing Kvapil’s conspectus
of Czech piano music in a set that includes
some of these Dvořák sides.
But the Naxos set is
complete and played by a pianist whose
devotion to the literature is undoubted;
more than that, it is frequently exuberant
without becoming vulgar, rhythmically
incisive without becoming insistent,
and extrovert without overreaching itself.
In short, though the recording locations
and dates vary – about three fifths
were recorded for German Radio over
a four year period with the bulk being
set down in 1995 and 1999 – there is
no jarring of acoustic perspectives.
All is consonance. A fine achievement,
then and a necessary one for whilst
not all the music is top drawer all
deserves to be accessible in idiomatic
and generous performances such as these.
Comparison with Kvapil shows that he
tends to be a marginal degree more poetic
than Veselka, a young Norwegian pianist
born of Czech pianists, but Veselka
is utterly committed to the literature
and a splendidly forthright guide to
it.
I’m reviewing a set
of five CDs in a slipcase but all are
available singly. This isn’t a chronological
survey so purchasers can cherry pick
if they want but it’s tough to know
where to start and what to pass over.
Many of these works were commissions
for societies or balls, some were gifts
to friends, written for publication
in piano collections, whilst others
remained unpublished during the composer’s
lifetimes (such as the Four Eclogues
and some of the Six Pieces). Volume
One gives us the rather generic Two
Minuets, of which the second is bolder
and more athletic and the repetitive
but oddly affecting D minor Dumka. The
Theme with Variations is the heart of
this disc, a well-wrought and imaginatively
colourful work that should be played
far more than it is. Veselka’s playing
of the first variation is particularly
astute and he marshals the variations
with considerable intelligence. The
Album Leaves are nostalgic – the first
is distinctly Chopinesque – and the
Eight Waltzes, which date from 1880
have lashes of vitality and charm (especially
the Allegro con fuoco, No.2) and a fine
kind of nobility in the rolled chords
of No.5.
The second disc replicates
the curve of the first but instead of
Two Minuets we have two Furiants, altogether
more bracing pieces – notable for the
sensitivity of Veselka’s diminuendi
in the first and the Lisztian moments
that course through the second. Of the
four Eclogues the third, No.3, a Moderato
in G major, is at once the most puzzling
and interesting, with its delicacy and
fast passagework and its rather Beethovenian
cast. There are four Compositions without
title and again it’s the third that
catches the ear, one that sounds like
a pure improvisation; clearly it’s not
but it has the fluid ease of something
off the cuff. The Six Pieces Op.52 owe
allegiance to Schumann; the fourth,
an Eclogue, is ripely romantic and the
concluding March resonates to the Davidsbündler.
In the third of the set we have more
of the trademark Furiants and Dumkas
but the heart is the hour long Poetic
Tone Pictures, one of Dvořák’s
great works for solo piano. Written
in 1885 it comprises thirteen pieces,
somewhat diffuse maybe in overall effect
but strong on dance rhythms and a sense
of emotive depth. The superscriptions
are again somewhat Schumannesque
but this time the methodology is entirely
Dvořákian, from the bell-like treble
clarity of On the Road at Night, through
the evocative eeriness and rolled chord
romance of At the Old Castle (nothing
Mussourgskian about this) through the
wistfulness of the
central Reverie, the beautiful Serenade
(it’s too long but one can understand
Dvořák’s reluctance to let go)
to the nobly spacious conclusion.
We are on slightly
better trod ground with Volume Four.
The Humoresques are here (including
that one) but you certainly won’t
know many. The first is a driving flair
filled affair, the third shows a deliciously
deadpan humour, the fifth is buoyant
in rhythm and the seventh, everyone’s
favourite, is here enlivened by some
teasing rubati. The Humoresques were
in fact his last important work for
solo piano and post date composition
of the Ninth Symphony. Much earlier
he’d written the Six Mazurkas (originally
Six Scottish Dances, which gives one
pause for thought). Even more than the
more vivacious ones the B flat major
shows what can be done with limpid lyricism;
succeeding it is a D minor seemingly
sunk in gravity of an almost religious
kind and the final Mazurka would work
very well for violin – perhaps it already
has. Silhouettes (there are twelve altogether)
share something thematically with the
song cycle Cypresses and the earliest
two symphonies. Short, persuasive and
idiomatic, it’s the Presto in F sharp
minor with its animated sections answered
by calls in the treble that most refreshingly
catches the ear.
The final volume brings
fare both familiar – the American Suite
in its original guise for piano (it’s
better known orchestrally) and some
Op. posthumous and other morceaux. The
Impromptu B129 wears an especially serious
middle section, not unrelated perhaps
to the fact that it was written fairly
shortly after the death of his mother.
Neatly this disc draws together
Dvořák’s earliest known work for
piano, the 1860 Polka and his last,
the 1894 Lullaby and Capriccio. It offers
short value at 38 minutes but completeness
is all in a set of this kind.
Fine performances then
of seldom heard repertoire. Recording
quality is generally excellent. Sometimes
radio sourced material can be cold and
brittle but not here; if anything some
close miking means that we get a vigorous
appreciation of Veselka’s playing –
try the first of the Eight Humoresques
if you’re unsure. It wouldn’t be true
to say that there are many masterpieces
here – but this is a body of work that
deserves revaluation and pianists will
want to acquaint themselves with some
valuable opportunities to spice up their
jaded repertoires. Listeners will need
no second invitation.
Jonathan Woolf
see also
review by Christopher Howell
Stefan Veselka (piano) 