RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Josef SUK (1874-1935)
Asrael Symphony in C minor, op. 27 (1905-06) [60:36]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20 (1939-40, rev. 1940) [20:17]
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Jiří Bělohlávek
rec. live, 1 June 2008, Smetana Hall of the Municipal House, Prague. DDD
SUPRAPHON SU 4095-2 [61:50 + 21:23]
The release of this pair of CDs is timely. As I write, The BBC Promenade Concerts
are about to begin and when they finish Jiří Bělohlávek
will step down as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a post he
has held since 2006. He is to return home for a second spell as Chief Conductor
of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and he will be succeeded as the BBCSO’s
Chief Conductor by Sakari Oramo in 2013. Happily, I believe that he will continue
to work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
These CDs preserve a concert that Bělohlávek and the orchestra
gave as part of the 63rd Prague Spring International Music Festival
in 2008. Although the Britten piece occupies the second disc I strongly suspect
that the Suk symphony was played in the second half of the concert. That would
seem the more logical ordering to me and it may well be confirmed by the applause
- over a minute’s worth in each case - that follows each piece; it’s
warm but respectful after the Britten but vociferous after the Suk. Incidentally,
the audience is otherwise commendably quiet, so far as I could tell. The pairing
of these two works is not, I admit, one that would have occurred to me but
in fact they work very well together as a programme.
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. In a broadly-paced reading
of the first movement, ‘Lacrymosa’, he and his orchestra invest
the music with menace and power - the BBCSO brass are especially menacing.
The darting, spitting, flickering writing of ‘Dies Irae’ is brought
off very well; the playing combines malevolence and virtuosity. Finally, ‘Requiem
aeternam’ brings some solace. Bělohlávek’s fine reading
of this movement is capped by an ardent climax (from 3:34), tailing off into
the calm acceptance of the closing pages. This performance is a considerable
success.
Though the performance of Sinfonia da Requiem is a
fine one, Bělohlávek’s account of Asrael is finer
still. He has recorded it before; there’s a 1991 recording on Chandos,
made under studio conditions, I think, with the Czech Philharmonic (review). I’ve not heard that version. Among the recordings that
I have heard, I would give pride of place to the superb account by the Czech
Philharmonic and Sir Charles Mackerras (review), taken from concerts in Prague, and the equally fine
Bavarian Radio studio-made performance by Kubelik (Panton 81 1101-2) if you
can still find it. The 1990 Virgin Classics recording by Libor Pešek
and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra should not be underestimated
either; this recording was my way into the piece many years ago. And then,
of course, there’s the classic studio version by the great Vaclav Talich,
which all who love this symphony will want in their collections (review), but the mono recording is now sixty years old. However,
this new Asrael should make strong claims on the attentions of collectors.
It’s a symphony steeped in deeply felt bereavement; little wonder that
Suk entitled the workAsrael after the Angel who, in Muslim mythology,
guides the souls of the dead. It was planned originally as a five-movement
tribute to his father-in-law, Dvořák, whose death in 1904 affected
him deeply. The first three movements had been written and a start made on
the slow movement when Suk was afflicted by an even greater blow. In July
1905 his wife, Otilie (Otlyka), Dvořák’s daughter, died
suddenly. She was just 27 years old and she and Suk had been married only
since 1898. Once he was able to face resuming the composition of his symphony
Suk penned a new slow movement in memory of his wife and also abandoned his
idea of a set of variations in tribute to Dvořák as the finale
and composed a last movement cast in a very different hue. The resulting symphony,
completed in 1906, is a magnificent and substantial creation, almost Mahlerian
in its reach and depth of feeling.
It is only comparatively recently that the work has been heard with any frequency
in the UK. Two conductors led the way: Libor Pešek played and recorded
it during his time in Liverpool and Simon Rattle gave it during his time with
the CBSO - I recall attending a fine performance by him in Cheltenham: I wonder
if he will ever return to the score; I wish he would. Even so, concert performances
in the UK remain few and far between and it would not surprise me if that
were not also the case in countries other than the former Czechoslovakia.
Happily, the work has been much better represented on CD in the last couple
of decades.
Bělohlávek leads a very intense performance. From the outset the
BBCSO projects the music strongly and eloquently. The music of the first movement
is steeped in deep feeling and loss and this comes out very much in the performance.
The powerful climaxes, such as the one beginning at 10:20 are delivered magnificently
and the recording engineers report them in excellent sound that has real presence.
However, there’s a great deal of delicate writing as well for the strings
and woodwind and this is put across just as impressively. The dreadful final
climax (from 13:29) is tremendously potent, the bass drum pounding away beneath
the rest of the mighty orchestral sound.
The second movement is at times a spectral funeral march and it’s surely
no accident that there are echoes of Dvořák’s Requiem. The
third movement is a substantial scherzo. As it says of this movement in the
English translation of the notes accompanying Talich’s recording “The
feverish dream is full of shades, spectres and cunningness”. That’s
rather well put. Bělohlávek gets his orchestra to play this music
vividly and with a real sense of fantasy. The slower central section is expansively
done and when the scherzo material returns the turbulent closing pages sound
especially effective.
The second part of the symphony moves from mourning Dvořák to
eulogizing Suk’s beloved young wife. The Adagio is entitled ‘To
Otylka’ and it’s a moving but not overwrought elegy. Here Bělohlávek’s
interpretation is noble and eloquent, displaying great empathy for Suk’s
music. The response of the BBC orchestra is very fine indeed. The finale,
another Adagio, opens dramatically with rhetorical timpani strokes. What follows
is a complex and often passionate movement but eventually (at 9:27), some
fifty-five minutes after the symphony began, the music at last achieves major
key warmth and some consolation. It’s a gently moving conclusion to
this very powerful symphony. Suk wrote to a friend “Do you know what
I had to go through before I got to that final C major? No, it’s not
a work of pain - but a work of superhuman energy.”
As I indicated near the start of this review, the performance of Asrael
is applauded vociferously by the audience. I’m not surprised for the
reading is a gripping one, full of concentration and tension. Moreover, the
BBCSO’s playing is splendid. This is a performance that, like the recordings
by Kubelik, Mackerras, Pešek and Talich shows the work’s immense
stature. Both the performances on this set are a fine souvenir of the fruitful
partnership between Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony
Orchestra. The Supraphon sound is very good indeed. Rob Cowan’s notes
are a bit disappointing. Understandably, given the timing of this release,
he devotes quite a bit of space to discussing Bělohlávek’s
work at the BBC but I’d have liked a bit more comment on the two pieces
of music, especially since Mr. Cowan is a well-known and knowledgeable enthusiast
for Czech music.
Bělohlávek and the orchestra played the Suk in London a few days
before the concert preserved here and that performance was reviewed for MusicWeb International Seen and Heard by Evan Dickerson.
John Quinn
A fine souvenir of the fruitful partnership between Jiří Bělohlávek
and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.