DVORAK: Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Op. 60; SUK: Sokol March, Op. 35c; Serenade for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 6 – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/ Vaclav Talich
Naxos Historical 8.112050, 78:35 [Not Distr. in the U.S.] ****:
Having recently reviewed the Opus Kura edition of the Dvorak Sixth Symphony (22 November 1938) by Vaclav Talich (1883-1961) and the Czech Philharmonic, I would ordinarily have ignored yet another incarnation of this fine performance on CD. But Mark Obert-Thorn has resurrected for this same disc the extremely rare inscription (22 November 1938) of the so-called Sokol March “Into a new life” by Josef Suk, a jaunty if somewhat pompous piece which would become part of the Prague Radio identity.
The Suk E-flat Serenade (22-23 November 1938) has rarely enjoyed such mellifluous playing as it receives here under Talich, with his two gifted string desk-men at the violin, Alexander Plocek and Egon Ledec, the latter of whom would perish in the Holocaust. The opening Andante is all lightness and grace, the passing harmonies and touches of counterpoint executed with seamless poise, a constant focus on the taut melodic line. Deft touches of waltz rhythm and colored timbre mark the shimmering Allegro, ma non troppo e grazioso second movement. Its dark middle section features the superb CPO viola and cello section. The heart of the piece, the extended Adagio; Piu Andante, plays under Talich as a pantheistic hymn whose spirit shines with interior light. Genial figures move the finale, contrapuntal and buoyant at once, ever brisk and the very instantiation of youth.
The Dvorak Sixth from November 22, 1938 did not receive a more updated inscription from Talich in his second flowering of records for the Soviet regime in the 1950s. A bucolic freshness imbues the entire work, and where the energy increases, then the impulse is rustic Bohemian. We feel that Dvorak still wrestles with the strictures of German symphonic form, and that his essentially lyric spirit has yet to be tamed to suit Teutonic proprieties. This would apply especially to the zeitgeist of these shellacs, carved out by devoted Czechs in the midst of world betrayal and national catastrophe. Typically, Obert-Thorn’s transfers of these HMV shellacs prove quiet and consistently rewarding to the collector of orchestral documents engraved by past masters.
–Gary Lemco
