MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS MDT
Sound Samples and Downloads

Josef SUK (1874-1935)
Symphony in E major (JSkat 40) (1897-99) [40:18]
Ripening (Zrání) - a symphonic poem (JSkat 70) (1917) [38:02]
New London Chamber Choir; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Jirí Belohlávek
rec. January (Ripening) and April (Symphony) 2010, Watford Colosseum
CHANDOS CHSA5081 [78:33]

Experience Classicsonline


Jirí Belohlávek has wrought quite a repertoire change of direction with his BBC orchestra. Martinu symphonic cycles, and Suk orchestral masterpieces are now de rigeur, and so too visiting Czech soloists.

His attention has now turned to Suk’s early Symphony in E, and to the mature Ripening or Zrání. The Symphony was long dominated in the catalogue by Neumann’s Czech Philharmonic Supraphon recording, which has been superseded by the company’s new release by Tomas Nepotil and the Prague Symphony, which I have not yet heard. But Neumann is still very much in one’s mind, as he took an expansive and intense view of the work and one that contrasts forcefully with this BBC/Belohlávek account.

Indeed Belohlávek’s pacy schema is in many ways different from, but complementary to, Neumann’s. They find different things in this early, Dvorák-influenced work, and highlight different priorities too. For Belohlávek the key is structural integrity and the minimising of occasional flabbiness; for Neumann it was the rich romantic cantilena and measured turbulence of the writing. In this newcomer one finds plenty of brisk unison playing in the first movement, plenty too of arching string melodies (try from 6:30) and verdant Czech wind writing. There’s an especially nice, woody clarinet introduction to the second movement but it sounds too forwardly balanced to me, and thereby misses the slower and more timbrally integrated approach of Neumann, where it is less soloistically balanced and integrates better with the accompanying string passages. One feels in this movement that Belohlávek is trying to accommodate such moments, with the succeeding paragraphs of almost operatic declamation, to make them cohere, and not to fracture, as can happen at slower tempi. I don’t actually feel this happens with Neumann, but it is a danger. The speed-up for the horn/string passages is exciting and so too is the scherzo, with its incisive and compact little dramas, well played and etched by the orchestra. Where I also felt a little bit of over-bright balancing is the piccolo writing in the finale, but Belohlávek certainly binds this movement well, taking the tempo changes in hand, and taking two minutes off Neumann’s timings in this movement alone. Particularly impressive is his unveiling of the Meno mosso e molto largamento section and the drawing out of the chorale-like maestoso conclusion.

Ripening (Zrání) receives another fine reading, wholly recommendable on its own terms. It’s slightly terser than Talich’s famous traversal, but not by very much, but in the final resort perhaps fails to catch the ultimate in sheer verdancy and almost tactile intensity that Talich did, notwithstanding the obvious disparity between recording techniques – Chandos’s SACD sound picture is really excellent. For instance the move to the poco allegro, con moto section (it’s part way into track 2) is well handled, and the brassy climaxes are very well caught, not least the growling lower brass. The bass section distinguishes itself – try around 4:40 into track 4 – and Belohlávek does well here by the subsequent Adagio quasi l’istesso tempo. He even manages, by virtue of his unsentimental directness, to mitigate what is, for me, the work’s Achilles Heel, which is the fugal development section (in track 5). Fortunately the choral contribution, brief though it is, is atmospheric and well balanced. Belohlávek proves just as strong an interpreter of the work as Neumann, whose old Supraphon recording was something of a staple for a time. One thing at which Belohlávek excels Neumann, however – here and in the Symphony – is rhythmic impetus. And the recording is far more up to date.

The Symphony has been recorded by Tomas Nepotil and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, coupled with Dvorák works [Supraphon SU39412]. Ripening has been recorded by the Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin under the avid Suk conductor, Kirill Petrenko [with Tale of a Winter`s Evening Op. 9 on CPO 7773642], and by Libor Pešek [4 CD Suk box SU38642, which includes Asrael but not the Symphony in E]. Talich’s premiere recording – part of which we now know to have been conducted by Zdenek Bílek - is on SU38232, coupled with Taras Bulba.

But if you value a cogent pair of readings – brisk but not brusque – then you will find that this latest entrant fits the bill admirably.

Jonathan Woolf

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.