Zdeněk FIBICH (1850-1900)
Orchestral Works - Volume 3
Othello, Op. 6 [16:59]
Záboj, Slavoj and Luděk, Op. 37 [17:52]
Toman a lesní panna (Toman and the Wood Nymph), Op. 49 [12:32]
Bouře (The Tempest), Op. 46 [11:39]
Vesna (Spring), Op. 13 [13:03]
Czech National Symphony Orchestra/Marek Štilec
rec. CNSO Studios, Hostivar, Prague, Czech Republic, 13 March, 3 April 2013
NAXOS 8.573197 [72:27]
Having given a guarded welcome to Volume
1 of this complete survey of Fibich's complete orchestral works,
I'm pleased to say that Volume 3 is a marked improvement. My main
concerns with Volume 1 were a solidly unimaginative interpretation of
the Symphony and a rather synthetic and unsubtle recording. Both of these
issues seem to have been overcome. Conductor Marek Štilec appears
considerably more at home with the pictorial demands of these symphonic
poems than he was with the abstract content of the Symphony. Likewise,
the recording, suits the colourful nature of the scoring and any lingering
'technicolour' spotlighting of instruments flatters the
music. The Czech National Symphony Orchestra are good - there is a lingering
Bohemian sound to their playing that I like a lot although it rather pales
next to near-historic versions from Frantisek Vajnar and the Prague Radio
Symphony Orchestra on Supraphon. These are demanding scores and in the
more demanding passages the engineering highlights that the upper strings
are under considerable pressure.
None of the works are receiving premiere recordings but this disc's
value is in bringing together for the first time such a comprehensive
collection of Fibich's symphonic poems. In their own right all
of these works are enjoyable to listen to without any seriously threatening
the supremacy of Smetana or Dvořák either in terms of memorable
melodies or orchestral colour. Another interest is that Fibich's
symphonic poems pre-date those of his compatriots. The earliest work,
Othello was first performed in 1873 which places it after Smetana's
Shakespearian tone-poem Richard III but well before Dvořák's
own essay on the subject - the concert overture Othello Op.93
written in 1891-2. Interestingly Dvořák suggested alternative
titles to his publisher including Tragic or Eroica so
the significance for him was the conflict between jealous and unsullied
love. Fibich seems more concerned with a narrative that contains those
elements too. Unfortunately the melodic material is relatively weak and
unmemorable from the opening martial fanfares into the first theme's
march-like character. There is a sense, and this occurs often when Fibich's
inspiration is not burning high, that the music and orchestration is rather
academic and formulaic. The playing is certainly good and I like the way
the Czech NSO have retained elements of their unique sound - particularly
in the wind and brass. The 'innocent love' theme presented
by the oboe accompanied by harp [track 1 4:00] is quite lovely both in
content and execution. The introduction of a bass clarinet to develop
the melody is a nice touch but there is formal weakness in that this passage
rather outstays its welcome being developed extensively through the strings
for up to nearly five minutes.
The next work, Záboj, Slavoj and Luděk,
is apparently the first symphonic poem written by a Czech composer on
a National theme. The liner does not explain the narrative so courtesy
of the web I can say it is " Based on an 1817 poem by Czech patriot
Vaclav Hanka that purported to be a thirteenth century manuscript, Zaboj,
Slavoj and Ludek tells the story of the heroic and successful defence
of the Czech nation against the invading Germans, a story that had obvious
parallels with the German-speaking Austrians' 500-year-long occupation
of Bohemia." As such it can be seen as the precursor for a sequence
of similarly motivated tone poems from Smetana's Ma Vlast
and Dvořák's Hero's Song through to
Suk's Praga and Janáček's Taras
Bulba. There is a fair amount of bombast and fairly generic battle
music in the work but the performance here is full of feisty energy and
vigour that I suspect gives the work as good a presentation as it could
get. The liner moots that "it audibly impressed Smetana around the
time he emabarked on .... Ma Vlast." Not sure about that
- Smetana's opera the Brandenburgers in Bohemia predates
Fibich by more than a decade, also deals with the occupation of Bohemia
by German armies and has a similar dramatic musical vocabulary - and Smetana
was stone deaf by 1875 so sadly not able to be audibly impressed by anything.
More compositional comparisons are to be had with the next work: Toman
and the Wood Nymph. Here there is no doubt that Fibich was forging
a new sub-genre: the folk-tale inspired symphonic poem. Interesting that
Vítěslav Novák chose exactly the same tale/title for
his Strauss-inspired 1907 composition. A musical comparison is fairly
pointless given the gulf in compositional styles between the essentially
conservative Fibich and the modernist-leaning Novák. What is
interesting is their different approach to the handling of the narrative.
What becomes clear is that Fibich works with a more limited dramatic palette
with sections juxtaposed against each for maximum contrast. There are
lovely orchestrational touches - the strings playing with the wood of
the bow - col legno - is quite unusual in a score of this date.
Also, there is a seductive melody for cor anglais and violas that is rather
beautiful. I like the sombre moralising brass chorale that closes the
work too. All of these effects register very well in this recording. Only
in a rather scrabbling string passage does the orchestra sound anything
but impressive.
The penultimate work on the disc is another Shakespeare-derived tone poem.
This time The Tempest. Fibich is unique amongst 19th century
composers, I think, in having written an opera on the same subject. No
surprise that the tone poem opens with a storm at sea - again there's
a nagging sense of the generic rather than the inspired and in a scrabbling
string passage the orchestra sounds under pressure for just about the
only time on the disc. After about three minutes this subsides into a
surgingly yearning love theme presented by the massed strings. I like
the ebb and flow Štilec gives the music here although just a tad
of extra finesse from the strings would have made this even more impressive.
This work I know in another recording as the coupling for Petr Vronsky
performance of the Symphony No.1 with the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra
on Supraphon. There is even more idiomatic playing from the Brno players
but the recording has less immediacy than the one under current consideration.
Curiously, a very busy harp part clearly audible in Brno is completely
obscured here which is both a surprise and a shame. Also interesting is
the dancing melody that Fibich introduces around the 5:40 mark is a close
cousin of a tune in Dvořák's Noonday Witch.
Indeed the whole work breathes more of Bohemian air than some of the others
- nominally more Nationalist works - on the disc to the music's
benefit.
That characteristic is certainly true of the best known and probably most
wholly successful work on the disc - Spring. This is given a
listing as Op. 13 but according to the liner was not first performed until
1881 which would make it the latest work. It is Fibich's "From
Bohemia's Woods and Fields" and as such is the most completely
successful work offered as it focuses on Fibich's strengths of
instrumental colour and melodic charm rather than drama. My comparative
version again comes from Supraphon - this time Frantisek Vajnar and the
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (review).
As before, the newer version is considerably better recorded but the older
disc features orchestral playing with a shade more character; plangent
clarinets and mellow horns suiting the bucolic good nature of the piece.
This is the best of Fibich and both versions show it in a good light -
for once Fibich's preference to linger in a pastoral idyll does
not feel like the dramatic flow is being impeded. When the energy of the
work does finally pick up around the 7:00 mark it is with a rustic dance
- this time Štilec's harp is pleasingly audible. This Fibich
develops and combines with the opening material most effectively until,
with the sense of dusk drawing in the piece closes quietly.
Richard Whitehouse supplies a useful succinct liner. The liner also takes
care to note that these recordings are made using authoritative sources
including the composer's manuscripts, copying errors have been
corrected and 'standard' performance cuts removed. All of
which is very welcome but I would be struggling to say I noticed a great
deal of textual difference between this and the comparative performances.
As previously mentioned, this is a marked improvement in every respect
on Volume 1 of this series and as such a very welcome addition to the
Fibich discography. There are no great masterpieces here, but in its own
right this is appealing and attractive music winningly performed.
Nick Barnard
Appealing and attractive music winningly performed.
And a further review ...
This is the third CD of a projected series of eight that will feature
all of Fibich's orchestral scores. The first volume received my
own enthusiastic welcome,
though my colleague Nick Barnard was somewhat more critical. Gary Higginson
enjoyed the performances and praised the recording quality in the second
volume and Paul Corfield Godfrey's verdict was also generally
favourable. This third disc has already been very positively reviewed
by MusicWeb International's Editor Rob Barnett, a real enthusiast,
it seems, for both the composer and this emerging Naxos series. Nick Barnard's
review of Vol. 3 should be onsite by the time the present review is published.
As Rob has already written about the individual works on this release
in some detail, there is no need for me to repeat that information. Taking
a broader overview, however, it is worth noting that, unlike many late
19th century occasional pieces, all these approachable scores - reminiscent
of Dvorak at times, Smetana or Liszt at others - make a strong and genuinely
memorable impact from the first hearing. I was particularly captivated
by Fibich's very individual take on Othello, full of touches
- or, indeed, quite substantial passages - that strongly call to mind
the First Symphony that he was to produce a decade later (sample 4:50-8:46,
for example). Toman and the wood nymph also exhibits that same
direct appeal.
Once again the players of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra offer
us convincing accounts that demonstrate their easy empathy with Fibich's
idiom. They have, moreover, been very well recorded by the team responsible
for the two successful earlier releases. The project to record all Fibich's
orchestral scores is clearly something of a labour of love for conductor
Marek Štilec. His detailed research has, according to the usefully
informative booklet with notes by Richard Whitehouse, corrected several
long-standing errors in performance practice and thereby restored a great
deal of authenticity to the music-making heard on this disc.
The youthful Mr Štilec - he is just 29 years old - has, incidentally,
undergone something of a makeover for this volume of the ongoing Fibich
series. Whereas his publicity photograph used to make him look all of
a fresh-faced 18, he has now adopted a rather severe pair of eyeglasses
and a little five o'clock shadow. If those are gimmicky attempts
to suggest that he possesses more conductorly gravitas these days, they
are entirely unnecessary: these assured and completely idiomatic performances
are quite enough on their own to demonstrate his expert professional credentials.
I look forward with the greatest enthusiasm to listening to the remaining
releases in this engrossing and enlightening series.
Rob Maynard
These approachable scores make a strong and genuinely memorable impact
from the first hearing.
Previous review: Rob
Barnett
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