I bought this recording "on spec" many years
ago in its original LP incarnation. It was my first encounter with the
music of Vítĕzlav Novák. Nothing like going in at
the deep end! It’s good to find this excellent recording now available
on CD for it’s hard to imagine many opportunities of hearing this work
outside the former Czechoslovakia.
The work, which is described as a "sea fantasy",
was composed between 1908 and 1910 and in it Novák
sets a long narrative poem by the poet Svatopluk Čech, published
in 1869. Čech’s poem, now long forgotten, is, I suppose, something
of an allegory in which the turbulence of the sea storm is compared
with strong human emotions. The narrative is complicated. At
the start a girl watches from the shore as a ship is tossed about in
the storm (track 2) and she prays for those on board. Thereafter a series
of episodes on board are depicted including a mutiny followed by the
crew getting roaring drunk. There’s also an on-board romance (of which
more anon) and as the lovers consummate their love the ship breaks up.
Finally, the story comes almost full circle with another hymn sung from
the safety of the shore, this time by a mixed chorus of fisher folk
(track 15).
All this is depicted in powerful, richly scored music
which includes parts for several vocal soloists. So far as I could judge,
without access to a score, all concerned give fine, committed and accurate
performances. I was impressed with the ringing tenor
of František Livora (track 3) and the Song at the Masthead is ardently
declaimed by Jarmila Smyčková (track 5). The emotional kernel of
the work is the love duet between the Maiden in the cabin and her Negro
slave who, somewhat implausibly, chooses this
moment to reveal himself as an African king, sold into slavery (track
10). As the lovers Nadĕžda Kniplová and Richard Novák are suitably
ardent.
The chorus is excellent throughout. The men are particularly
impressive in their first foray (track 4) where they are members of
the crew singing about the ship’s dwarf (!) The singing is full-throated
and committed and always secure despite what sound like some pretty
fearsome demands made on the sopranos and tenors in particular. The
playing of the Czech Philharmonic is quite magnificent whether at full
tilt (which is pretty often) or in the more delicately scored passages.
They accompany the singers superbly and are also heard to very good
effect in the several extensive orchestral interludes.
Novák’s work is written on a broad canvass and
if it is not to sprawl it needs a firm hand on the tiller. Zdenĕk
Košler here proves himself to be a musical master mariner. He seems
to me to have the full measure of the score and he secures a dramatic
and convincing performance. He whips up some fearsome, tempestuous playing
and choral singing in the passage which depicts the dismasting of the
ship, the event which finally leads to its demise (track 12 from 1’55"
and track 13). He also handles the concluding choral prayer (track 15)
very well, bringing this uneven work to a noble close.
Yes, it is an uneven work but it contains some very
good music and it is well worth investigating. Supraphon’s recording
is a good one, accommodating the largest climaxes (of which there are
several) very well and balancing the forces properly. This is not the
first recording of the work: there was at least one earlier one, which
I have not heard, also from Supraphon, conducted by Jaroslav Krombholc
but that dates from the late 1950s or early 1960s. However, in the current
state of the record industry it seems unlikely that there will be another
recording of this piece in the foreseeable future and, even if there
were, it would have to be pretty good to surpass Košler’s account. Supraphon’s
documentation is very good, providing notes and texts in Czech, German,
English and French. Admirers of this composer and collectors with an
enquiring ear are advised to snap up this release before it is shipwrecked
on the rock of deletions.
John Quinn
see also comparative
review by Rob Barnett
Czech Philharmonic Chorus
and Orchestra/Zdenĕk Košler 
