A Splendid CD
John GibbonsSmetana: Macbeth and the Witches; Dvorak: Prelude to Spectre’s Bride, The Water Goblin, and The Hussites, Prague Symp.With Smetacek, Czech Phil with Chalarala, on Urania.
I can’t promise that these magnificently virile performances are still available, of course Arkiv has so much, maybe they have it.
If you don’t know the Smetana poem (1859), run don’t walk to hear it. It has a terrifying grandeur and a thrilling visceral impact. It is also strangely “modern” sounding; It is easily on the level of Ma Vlast; in fact, a little more daring, so to speak. The Dvorak “Water Goblin” is attractive and scintillatingly colorful, it is, however exceedingly repetitive. If you don’t hate the water goblin for being an infanticide, you may hate him for smearing his theme all over the score with such greediness for attention. “The Hussites” concert overture (1883) ought to please those who are aficionados of Smetana’s “Tabor” and “Blanik”. It is indeed similar: Dvorak wrote it for the rebuilding of the Czech National Theatre in Prague, after a disastrous fire. Compare what Smetana was doing half a generation before Dvorak’s overture. As I’ve said again and again, musical progress doesn’t follow a straight line from the less “modern” to the more “modern”…
Reader Comments (3)
This CD is not available from Amazon or Arkiv. A few US libraries have it, but none are close by. Maybe you should try selling your copy on eBay.
According to the Grove Dictionary (John Clapham) Macbeth is a piano piece (Arkivmusic has four piano versions listed) which Smetana never orchestrated, although it was composed close in time to the other three early symphonic poems recorded by Kubelik and others. Therefore, someone else must have orchestrated it for that (old) recording; Chalabala (note spelling) was a fine conductor who died in 1962.
Dvorak's Husitska (Hussite) Overture concluded the very first concert of the CSO in 1891 (the other works were Wagner's Faust Overture, Beethoven's 5th, and Tchaikovsky's 1st piano Concerto). In 1991 the CSO played exactly the same program with Barenboim for the Wagner, Solti for Beethoven, and Barenboim piano with Solti conducting in Tchaikovsky. The highlight, however, was Kubelik in the Dvorak overture, which was issued on CD as part of a 2 CD set of Kubelik/CSO broadcasts for Radiothon 17. (Judy Petty should know if it's still available.)
That grand Hussite battle song was also used more recently by Karel Husa in his Music for Prague 1968, composed in 1969 and performed by the CSO in 1973 and 1987.The meaning of that battle song hasn't changed over the years.
No orchestrator is listed on the cd; The liner notes seemed to imply Smetana orchestrated it, but the style seemes awfully advanced for 1859. Brain Large discusses the piece in his biography of Smetana. I'll check what he says. Sheetmusic CD has a vast quantity of Smetana, but I don't think any of the Macbeths are included. In any case, the orchstration is a humdinger. The piece lasts only about 10 minutes. I'm glad I have the cd.
I personally please don't generally respond to blog posts having said that I definitely will so. My best Goodness, I realized which you were planning to food into certain critical insght when they get home now there, possibly not allow it to cook utilizing people allow to soak that you consider.