ONDREJ KUKAL (b.1964)
Violin Concerto
Danse Symphonique for large orchestra
Clarinet Concerto
Present string duo
String Quartet No. 1
Composer (violin)/South Bohemia
Chamber PO/Vladimir Valek (violin concerto)
Prague RSO/composer (Danse) Ludmilla Peterkova (cl)/New Vlach
Quartet/Jacub Waldman (double bass) (clarinet concerto) Jana Vlachova
(violin)/Mikael Ericsson (cello) (Present) New Vlach Quartet (string
quartet)
rec 1997 Czech Radio studio
and Ceske Budejovice CAMPION RRCD1343 [65.27]
Kukal was born in Prague and studied there at the conservatoire under Joseph
Vlach. His violin concerto is similar in scale to the Glazunov, Rak and
Kabalevsky concertos. It is not at all obtuse or musically forbidding. The
first movement's tumbling harum-scarum Hungarian frenzy is continued in the
finale (touched with Shostakovich's wand) from which it is separated by an
andante in which I caught refrains from Janacek (in more idyllic mood) and
Holst's concerto for two violins. The composer is the salty-slick violin
soloist. Danse Symphonique stamps and struts like Janacek's
Taras (one persistent figure very close indeed to the Janacek work)
and Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony. It has the tungsten-carbide pointillism
of a Shostakovich ballet. The clarinet concerto preens and displays like
a gun-metal automaton bird in accents already asserted by the violin concerto
- letting up seemingly for a central serenade in a lichen-hung woodland.
These works all date from the 1980s and 1990s and are bound to appeal. The
rapid-fire chase of the duo (adding valuably to the repertoire already dominated
by the Kodaly duo) contrasts with some poignantly flighted music standing
in direct line to the Smetana Quartet No. 1. I rate the duo very highly indeed.
I urge you to try this music which, with the composer as soloist in the concerto
and as violinist in the quartet (peppery satire - Shostakovich again) and
clarinet concerto and as conductor in the Danse, could hardly be presented
more authoritatively.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
