Rising Czech star Gabriela
Demeterová has won her spurs
in romantic literature as well as delving
assiduously into the baroque era on
disc. Her Bach Violin and Harpsichord
sonata set has been well received and
she has also recorded Stamitz. I caught
one volume of her Biber Mystery Sonatas
and liked what I heard – critically-informed
musicianship from the perspective of
a modern instrument player who has learned
from the experience of practitioners
in the baroque violin camp. So her twelfth
Supraphon disc comes, to me
at least, as a bit of a surprise. Yes
there’s Fibich and Dvořák but as
Star Trek’s Bones would have put it;
“It’s Suk, Jim, but not as we know it.”
The extra ingredient
comes in the form of arrangements by
Otmar Mácha. Not content with
orchestrations and a prominent part
for harp he has also utilised the services
of a soprano, Tereza Mátlová
whose vocalise, whilst well pitched
and warm, does tend to the grandiose.
So these sweetmeats are decked out in
new finery – and not all of them are
violin pieces by any means – in the
interests of an hour’s worth of easy
listening. Demeterová’s violin
playing is deliberately low calorific.
She doesn’t make a meal out of what
is already something of a meal – so
her participation is pleasant at best.
Mácha tweaks the melody
line of the Fibich and can’t elevate
the accompaniment to the Vačkář
to much above the merely pianistic;
it tends to be a vamp-till-ready utilitarianism
that tends to crop up elsewhere. Harp
glissandi spice the Ravel, though the
arrangement is otherwise too
coy, especially when Mátlová
joins in. The Czech Philharmonic Collegium
is actually a practised (modern instrument)
baroque band but they dig into the strings
in old style fashion for the Bach and
also in what the disc claims is "Handel’s
Arioso". Hold on folks, this is
Siegfried Ochs’ Dank sei dir, Herr
from the Cantata con Stromenti.
Someone has a very old edition – pre-War
if they think it’s Handel.
What definitely is
Handel is the aria from Rinaldo, Lascia
ch’io pianga, which I have to say
I enjoyed rather more than the Fauré
Pavane and its patter of pizzicati and
counter themes reinforced by solo voice.
This composer seems to bring out the
worst in the arranger; Apres un rêve
really is a bit of a shocker. And as
for the Suk, well, it’s difficult to
transcribe and arrange this other than
pianistically; the arranger has gone
in for over-orchestration maybe to over
compensate for the pianistic problems.
As elsewhere Demeterová can be
rather squeezed out of the equation.
Originally recorded
in 1999 this edition comes with the
CD compatible to play with Windows PCs
(Real Player) as a video. Having a disc
drive problem at the moment I can’t
test it. But I think the main audience
here will be for the charismatic violinist
– albeit in rather so-so arrangements.
Jonathan Woolf
Gabriela Demeterová (violin) 
