Vaclav Smetacek

Beethoven - Violin Concerto, Romances Nos. 1 & 2 - Josef Suk (1988)
EAC Rip | FLAC (img + cue), LOG | TT 63:09 | Covers (jpg 300 dpi) | RAR 325 MB (3% Recovery)
Supraphon | Czechoslovakia | 11 0628-2 011 | 1988

The interpreter is the Czech violinist Josef Suk (1929). Having completed his studies in Prague, he devoted himself to both chamber music and solo performances. Among his repertoire Suk includes works not only by Dvorak, Suk and Beethoven but also by Berg, Janacek and Martinu. The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom Suk appeared as a soloist for many years, performs here under the direction of the conductor Franz Konwitschny (1901-1962). Konwitschny first began his musical career as a violinist and viola player; he took up the baton succesfully for the first time in 1927. In 1949 he was made Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and later took up the post of Principal Conductor at both the Dresden and Berlin Operas. Milos Navratil

Following the collections of symphonies (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Kletzki, SU 4051-2) and violin sonatas (Suk, Panenka, SU 4077-2), Supraphon is now releasing the complete Beethoven concertante pieces. All of them (including the Triple Concerto and the genre-unique Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra) came into being within a mere sixteen years, between 1793 and 1809. Although Beethoven deemed the piano "an imperfect instrument", his five piano concertos form one of the cornerstones of his oeuvre and represent a significant landmark in this genre.

Neither Josef Bohuslav Foerster's Third Symphony of 1894 nor his Fourth Symphony of 1924 could be considered ahead of their time. Indeed, they are barely of their time. His Third has much of heroic middle period Dvorák and Brahms in it while his Fourth, the "Easter Eve" symphony, mixes the weight of late Bruckner with the expressivity of middle period Mahler. But whatever their time, they could and should be considered as vital works in their own right written by a talented, sincere, and distinctive composer.

The Polish pianist Halina Czerny-Stefanska (1922 - 1982) enjoyed a more substantial reputation among piano buffs than among music-lovers in general until she was unexpectedly shot to prominence by a mistake that got her talked about all around the world. In the early 1950s she had performed the First Concerto of Chopin under Vaclav Smetacek in a recording issued by the Czech label Supraphon; when EMI reissued the performance in 1965 it was attributed to Dinu Lipatti, the Romanian pianist whose premature death in 1950 robbed classical music of one of its brightest stars.

Greetings From Russia - Czech Orchestras perform Russian Works (1988)
EAC Rip | FLAC (img + cue), LOG | TT 67:58 | Covers (jpg 300 dpi) | RAR 358 MB (3% Recovery)
Supraphon | Czechoslovakia | 11 0622-2 011 | 1988

The birth of Russian national music culture in the 19th century is closely connected with Glinka. Balakirev was one of the initiators of the group in which musicians of varying creative inclinations & abilities came together. The oriental element is very evident in works by Borodin & he makes effective use of the exotic sound world in his only opera Prince Igor. Rimsky-Korsakov is represented as a composer in his own right on this recording by his overture Russian Easter Festival (1888). Tchaikovsky was not a member of the "Mighty Five", unlike the composers already mentioned, but he too strove to write works in which typical national features were prominent.