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Suk / Dvorak: Serenades for Strings

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Josef Suk (1874 - 1935) Serenade For Strings in E Flat Major, Op. 6 Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1940) Serenade For Strings in E Major, Op. 22 The Czech composer...

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Josef Suk (1874 - 1935)

Serenade For Strings in E Flat Major, Op. 6

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1940)

Serenade For Strings in E Major, Op. 22

The Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk, Dvorak's favourite pupil and later his son-in-law, was the son of a village organist and schoolmaster at Krecovice. He was born in 1874 and at the age of eleven entered the Prague Conservatory, where he studied the violin with the director Antonin Bennewitz and theory with Josef Foerster. His chamber music teacher was the cellist Hanus Wihan, for whom Dvorak wrote his famous Cello Concerto and who trained the distinguished Czech Quartet, in which Suk played second violin until his retirement in 1933 and the consequent disbandment of the quartet. In addition to his activities as a performer Suk distinguished himself as a composer and as a teacher of composition at the Prague Conservatory, exercising a strong influence over a whole generation of Czech composers.

Suk's Serenade in E Flat Major, Op. 6, was written in 1892, a year after his graduation from the Conservatory, and on the recommendation of Brahms was published by Simrock in 1896, immediately establishing him as a composer of importance. In four movements the Serenade opens with a movement of charm and lyrical appeal, tinged with occasional sadness and very much in the classical tradition. This is followed by a more overtly cheerful Allegro and a slow movement of greater intensity of feeling. The mood changes at once with the energy of the final movement that brings to an end a work of remarkable achievement, composed as it was by an eighteen-year-old, then embarking on an additional year of instruction at the Conservatory.

Dvorak's own background offered less opportunity, though his achievement must seem the greater. He was born in a village in Bohemia, where his father owned an inn and worked as a butcher. The village band provided early musical interest and training of a kind, before, through the help of relatives, Dvorak could be sent away to school, and finally to the Prague Organ School, at that time a poor relation of the Conservatory. He spent the first part of his professional life as an orchestral player, principal violinist in the orchestra of the Czech Provisional Theatre, where he worked for a time under Smetana. He was eventually able to devote himself more fully to composition and was greatly assisted by the encouragement of Brahms, both by the award of scholarships and the necessary recommendation to publishers.

Dvorak's career won him an international reputation. His visits to England and the resulting choral compositions won him friends in that country and in 1892 he was invited to New York to establish a National Conservatory, in pursuance of the sponsor's aim to cultivate a national American school of composition. At home he had, after Smetana, been largely instrumental in creating a form of Czech music that transcended national boundaries, music that was thoroughly Bohemian in its melodic inspiration and yet firmly within the German classical tradition exemplified by Brahms.

The E major Serenade

for string orchestra was written in the first two weeks of May in the year 1873 and performed in Prague on 10th December 1876. It is scored only for strings and has for many years formed a major item in the string orchestra repertoire. The first movement opens with music of delicate charm, breathing something of the spirit of a Schubert quartet, particularly in the middle section of this ternary movement. This is followed by a waltz, with a more restless trio. The scherzo starts with a melody of great liveliness, followed by a second theme of more romantic pretensions and a further melody of considerable beauty, before an extended passage leads back again to the opening melodies. A Larghetto of great tenderness and yearning, recalling in outline the trio of the second movement leads to the finale in which there are references both to the Larghetto and to the first movement. This brings, in conclusion, still more of the spirit of Bohemia, with which the whole Serenade is instilled.

Capella Istropolitana

The Capella Istropolitana was founded in 1983 by members of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, at first as a chamber orchestra and then as an orchestra large enough to tackle the standard classical repertoire. Based in Bratislava, its name drawn from the ancient name still preserved in the Academia Istropolitana, the orchestra works in the recording studio and undertakes frequent tours throughout Europe. Recordings by the orchestra on the Naxos label include The Best of Baroque Music, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, fifteen each of Mozart's and Haydn's symphonies as well as works by Handel, Vivaldi and Telemann.

Jaroslav Kr(e)cek

The Czech conductor and composer Jaroslav Kr(e)cek was born in southern Bohemia in 1939 and studied composition and conducting at the Prague Conservatory. In 1962 he moved to Pilsen as a conductor and radio producer and in 1967 returned to Prague to work as a recording supervisor for Supraphon. In the capital he founded the Chorea Bohemica ensemble and in 1975 the chamber orchestra Musica Bohemica. In Czechoslovakia he is well known for his arrangements of Bohemian folk music, while his electro-acoustic opera Raab was awarded first prize at the International Composer's Competition in Geneva. He is the artistic leader of Capella Istropolitana.

Disc 1

Serenade in E flat major, Op. 6

(more info)

Performed by: European New Philharmonic Orchestra Capella Istropolitana Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Musici de Montreal, I
Composed by: Josef Suk
Conducted by: Jaroslav Krecek Volker Hartung Vaclav Talich Jiri Belohlavek
Alexej Svjatlovskij, violin
Igor Makarow, viola
Sergej Belesow, cello
Yuli Turovsky, cello
Recording date: 22-23 November 1938

Andante con moto - 6:44
Allegro ma non troppo - 5:50
Adagio - 10:26
Allegro giocoso - 7:41

Serenade in E major, Op. 22, B. 52

(more info)

Performed by: Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra Ukranian Chamber Orchestra European New Philharmonic Orchestra Capella Istropolitana Musici de Montreal, I Philharmonia Orchestra Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra German Philharmonic String Orchestra
Composed by: Antonin Dvorak
Conducted by: Theodore Kuchar Jaroslav Krecek Volker Hartung Alain Lombard Gerard Schwarz Christopher Warren-Green Achim Fiedler
Yuli Turovsky, cello
Michael Sanderling, cello

Moderato - 4:13
Tempo di valse - 7:14
Scherzo: Vivace - 6:36
Larghetto - 6:48
Finale: Allegro vivace - 5:44

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Composer(s):
Dvorak, Antonin; Suk, Josef

Conductor(s):
Krecek, Jaroslav

Orchestra(s):
Capella Istropolitana

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099541923
Item Number: 8550419
Release Date: May 14, 1991