Suk Dvorak Piano

Josef Suk (1874-1935), student and son-in-law of Antonin Dvorák, is one of music's hidden treasures. At the beginning of his career, as in the Six Piano Pieces, he wrote a reasonable facsimile of his teacher's music. The first of these pieces, "Love Song," is the best known of the set, but it's not the only beautiful one. "Moods," even less familiar music, is similarly lovely. By the time he wrote About Mother, Suk had been through the experience that was to transform his life: the early death of his greatly beloved wife, Otilie.

Four examples of Bohemian Expressionism: Romantic with the tombeau ‘to the memory of an angel’ that Smetana erected to his daughter Bedřiska, and the two pieces that Suk wrote under the influence of Schumann and Dvořák, his father-in-law; and modern with the premiere of the Trio 1978 by the late Luboš Fišer, tormented composer, too soon forgotten, of the 15 Prints on Dürer’s Apocalypse (1965).

Antonín Dvorák, Josef Suk and Bohuslav Martinu. Three big names in the world of classical music, three generations of Czech composers, from romanticism to modernism. But also three masterpieces lesser known to the larger audiences…

The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, is the last solo concerto by Antonín Dvořák. It was written in 1894 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but was premiered by the English cellist Leo Stern. The Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, B. 166, (also called Dumky trio from the subtitle Dumky) is a composition by Antonín Dvořák for piano, violin and cello. It is among the composer's best-known works. At the same time it is a prominent example for a piece of chamber music deviating strongly from the customary form of classical chamber music – both in terms of the number of movements and of their formal construction.

Not only is this an intriguing programme with some premiere recordings but also it’s played on Suk’s own Bösendorfer. There’s even a colour photograph of Tomáš Víšek playing it in Křečovice surrounded as he is by Suk memorabilia. The works include his well known Jaro or Spring but Arco Diva adds the much less played opus 22 stable mate Letní dojmy (Summer Impressions). The Two and Three Piano Pieces have never been recorded before and nor has Spanish Capers. We also have four little morceaux by Dvořák’s daughter and Suk’s short-lived wife, Otilie as well as four attractive pieces by Suk’s son, also Josef. None of these have ever been recorded………

Jonathan Woolf @ musicweb-international

The two large-scale works by Dvořák and Smetana are complemented here by the one- movement Elegy, by Josef Suk, Dvořák’s student and later son-in-law. Formed in 2007, the Sitkovetsky Trio performs worldwide and has received numerous awards and critical acclaim, but is here making its début on disc, in a programme perfectly suited to the ensemble’s virtuosic and impassioned music-making.