Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Czech Suite, Op.39, B93 (1879) [22:35]
American Suite, in A Op.98b, B190 (1895) [21:33]
Symphonic Variations, Op.78, B70 (1877) [21:28]
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Alois Klíma (Czech), Karel Šejna
rec. 1952 (Variations) and 1957, Prague
FORGOTTEN RECORDS FR244 [65:49]
Supraphon collectors may remember that the LP numbered LPV341 housed
both the Czech and American suites, parcelled out to conductors Alois
Klíma and Karel Šejna respectively. To cement the theme,
Forgotten Records’s restoration of both suites also includes Šejna’s
earlier 1952 recording of the Symphonic Variations. All feature the Czech
Philharmonic and the timing is thus pushed to 65 minutes in total.
Klíma (1905-80) was conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
for two decades, from 1951-71, and had a catholic repertory – from
Haydn to Robert Heger and from Mozart to John Ireland. His major recordings
however were of Czech works, Dvořák to Dobiáš
included, and many will have cause to be grateful to him for his incisive
and characterful conducting. His 1957 Czech Suite recording is agile and
generously sprung with a full measure of the music’s grazioso
elements intact. He draws a lovely lifting of the bass line and evokes
supple wind playing in the central movement of the five, and encourages
sinewy dancing rhythms in the finale. Here, propelled by strong lower
strings, the brassy colours are triumphantly matched by the percussion
– a Furiant indeed.
The American Suite is genial but undemanding, again cast in five movements,
none of them on the level of the Czech Suite. But even in a work as essentially
populist as this, Šejna still gives his favoured double-basses
their head – he was himself an ex-bassist - and brings a deal of
warmth to the central Allegretto, whilst revelling in its bracingly rhythmic
outer sections. For a more comprehensive look at his superiority as a
Dvořák conductor one should turn instead to the Symphonic
Variations. Some contemporary critics, British ones in the main, were
somewhat sniffy about this recording, preferring to laud the home team
effort from Thomas Beecham. Admittedly Beecham was a vitalising, indeed
sometimes mercurial interpreter of the composer and his recording of the
variations is indeed full of felicitous touches, wit and warmth. But maybe
it was also to do with the recording level which may have seemed light
on its feet after the fuller-blooded Beecham. I don’t find anything
lacking in Šejna’s reading and he has the Czech Philharmonic
on characteristically energised and cultured form. It’s a reading
of delicacy and power, one careful to avoid grandiloquence at all times.
I seem to repeat myself constantly on this point when I note, finally,
that Forgotten Records’ restoration is excellent.
Jonathan Woolf
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