Ostrcil's Symphony splays out between the voice of his revered
master Zdenek Fibich (the doyen of overt Czech late-romanticism) and something
that approximates to Mahler but without the neurosis. Dryads dance amid the
sunlit glades in the Weberian skittishness of the Quasi maestoso. The
horns of the Prague orchestra have a pleasant warble (I can easily imagine
them in the great horn theme from Tchaikovsky 5). The horn dominance carries
over into the relaxation of the Moderato. The Vivace steps
out gamely and hustles playfully along in a synthesis of Dvorak and early
Mahler.
His much later Sinfonietta is quite a contrast. It is only
a few minutes shorter but is a jaundiced and disillusioned world away from
the Symphony. It is to the Symphony what Suk's Asrael is to Suk's
own Op. 14 Symphony. Angst and weariness (a transformation wrought by the
Great War) swagger and shamble through the Moderato and I hear parallels
with the Miaskovsky symphonies of that period - including the enigmatic
Thirteenth. Miaskovsky could so easily have written the long winding clarinet
solo at the start of the Andantino. The note-writer claims that the
score is 'optimistic and sunny'. This does not come across to me though I
grant that a more life-enhancing updraft struggles prominently in the Molto
allegro. Overall I hear a work of complexity in technical execution,
in psychological make-up and in mood portrayal.
The recording renders the strings with an unflattering edge but with nicely
roughened textures for brass and woodwind. There is some unexceptionable
zooming in on woodwind and brass. Good notes and a substantial playing time.
Rob Barnett
Prague SO/JirÍ
Behlolávek
