Encore: Janacek pits a single-handed pianist against two trumpets, three trombonesand a tuba!
In this edition of Encore we look at a classic recording of Vitezslav Novak's masterpiece "In the Tatra Mountains", and we also enjoy a few surprises on a re-release of Josef Palenicek playing Janacek.
'In the Tatra Mountains' - a classic Czech Philharmonic recording
The summer is a good time to head for the mountains, which is what we do in the first CD we look at today. The Tatras - the Alps of Slovakia - inspired composer Vitezslav Novak to write the beautiful tone poem 'In the Tatra Mountains'. Novak was taken there by a friend in 1900 during a spiritual and creative crisis. Though he had been a student of Dvorak at the Prague conservatory, and was considered among the musical elite, he always suffered from self-doubt and was extremely self-critical. His stay in the Tatras turned him completely around.
Supraphon recently released 'In the Tatra Mountains' in a 1950 recording by the Czech Philharmonic under Karel Ancerl. It is part of a huge project - the release of no less than 42 CDs to commemorate Karel Ancerl's long tenure at the Czech Philharmonic which lasted from 1947 until his emigration to the west in 1968. The set is known as the 'Gold Edition.'
The CD of 'In the Tatra Mountains' also contains some lesser-known but quite interesting works by Klement Slavicky, who lived from 1910 until 1999. Like Janacek, he was from Moravia and used Moravian folk music as inspiration. We have here his lovely Rhapsodic Variations, as well as his set of Moravian Dance Fantasias from a 1953 recording of the Philharmonic under Ancerl.
A Janacek surprise on a Supraphon re-release
One of Vitezslav Novak's students as a composer was Josef Palenicek, but he is best known as a pianist. Supraphon has just re-released his complete recordings of Leos Janacek - which is not to say the complete Janacek, but everything that Palenicek recorded.
It includes the works you would expect: In the Mists, On an Overgrown Path - Book I, the Sonata fragment, but what is a good deal less known is the Capriccio for Piano left hand and Wind Ensemble. Janacek wrote it in 1926 for a friend who was wounded in the war. Perhaps only Janacek would pit a single-handed pianist against a brass choir including 2 trumpets, 3 trombones and a tuba!
CDs reviewed in this programme are provided by Siroky Dvur
