Novák: Lady Godiva/De profundis/Toman and the Wood Nymph

Vitezslav Novak (Composer), Libor Pesek (Conductor), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Libor Pesek
• Composer: Vitezslav Novak
• Audio CD (July 25, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B00004TD53
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,766 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

All admirers of lush, late-romantic tone poems should find plenty to enjoy in this release. Vítezslav Novák (1870-1949) is underrepresented in the catalogs, and this disc marks an important step in his evaluation. The sound-world is lush and saturated, an atmosphere captured well by Chandos's spacious recording. Straussian opulence with a soft Slav accent would be an apt description of these pieces. Throughout, Pesek exhibits an indigenous understanding of the Bohemian musical language, and the BBC Philharmonic responds passionately. The tenderness of Lady Godiva (written in 1907 and apparently composed in two days) is touchingly portrayed, while the imaginative orchestration of Toman and the Wood Nymph (1906-07), more daring than that of Godiva, is relished to the full. The later De Profundis (1941) proceeds in grand gestures on a journey from its initial subterranean rumblings to its organ-drenched, upliftingly triumphant conclusion. Warmly recommended. --Colin Clarke

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Novak Redivivus, November 17, 2000

By 

Thomas F. Bertonneau (Oswego, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Novák: Lady Godiva/De profundis/Toman and the Wood Nymph (Audio CD)

Born before Josef Suk, with whom he is often coupled in the music-histories, Vítęzslav Novák (1870-1949) also outlived him. Like Suk, Novák obtained his compositional training from Antonin Dvorák; like Suk, he practiced the large orchestral forms of symphony and extended symphonic poem. His "Pan" (1910), in five movements, lasts some seventy-five minutes in performance; with "The Storm" (1910), it constitutes, in the opinion of the critics, his masterpiece. But a consistency marks the career of Novák, so that even the "lesser works" presented on the new Chandos CD merit our attention. Novák wrote the most substantial of them, "De Profundis," in 1940, during the Nazi occupation of his Czech homeland. For organ and orchestra, it arises indeed "out of the depths" and records both the despair and hope of the blighted Czech Republic during its dark hours as an involuntary component of "Greater Germany." (Unfortunately, many more dark hours lay ahead, even after the short-lived liberation of 1945.) In form, the tone-poem corresponds to a vast prelude and double fugue, concluding in a grim and defiant chorale. Because the Bohemian religious reformers, beginning with Jan Hus, have always occupied the forefront of the political independence movement in the Czechoslovak lands - opposing Hapsburg domination and siding with the peasantry against the Catholic nobility - Novák's Bachian plan, with its Protestant associations, accords well with the call to resistance implicit in "De Profundis." Libor Pešek and the BBC Philharmonic tender an appropriately Stygian account of the opening section (Largo Lugubre), with string basses and contrabassoon growling from below. Years ago, a Supraphon LP devoted one whole side to this work under Jaroslav [?] Vogel (leading an orchestra whose identity I forget): But little of the music managed to show through the murky early-stereo recording and the inadequate export pressing, full of pops and ticks and other distortions. Pešek, aided by the Chandos recordists, makes the music at once dark and yet transparent, so that we can hear the considerable inner complexity of the construction. The fugal episode (Appassionato Doloroso) picks up the pace and generates the apposite sense of crisis. The entry of the organ signals the renewal of hope. Pešek has wrought marvels with Novák's unusual scoring (organ, celesta, brass, and woodwind) and succeeds in showing how modern this composition by a seventy-year-old neo-Romantic really is. The coda fully qualifies for its description as "Grandiose." The two remaining works come from earlier in Novák's career. He wrote "Lady Godiva" (1907) for a festival-drama produced to inaugurate the Vinohrády Theater in Prague. Exciting fanfares give way to music of heroism and passion. A solo violin suggests the feminine character of the eponymous Lady. "Tomán and the Wood Nymph" (1906), based on an old Bohemian legend, wanders a bit, but brings off its climaxes with considerable panache. On the strength of this program, one hopes that the Pešek-Chandos team will tackle "In the Tatras," "Eternal Longing," "The Storm," and other rarely heard or recorded Novák scores.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Czech PLease!, October 3, 2000

By 

Jdaniel1371 "jdaniel1371" (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Novák: Lady Godiva/De profundis/Toman and the Wood Nymph (Audio CD)

Though my friends, (after a series of short-lived, unfulfilling late-Romantic relationships involving Tcherepnin, Schmidt and Korngold among others), tell me over and over again that there's more to a composer than just his big orchestra, I continue to ignore them--this time grabbing Chandos' new release of music by Vitezslav Novak.

Novak can be described, for the most part, as a heady, late-Romantic Dvorak. (Perhaps you have already heard Novak's music on a Virgin CD which contains the "Slovak Suite," "In the Tatra Mountains," and "Eternal Longing"-it's a wonderful recording.) He is a capable and imaginative melodist and orchestrator who, in the tradition of Wagner, Debussy, Strauss, and Janacek, avoids formal repetition and prefers to spin a musical narrative that constantly evolves and transforms itself. In other words, his music is through-composed rather than strophic.

Novak's spikes his simple and direct folk-like melodies with the most delightfully quirky harmonies and evocative orchestrations. Gestures of empty bombast and glutinous sentimentality, the twin progeny of late-Romantic immoderation, are fortunately kept to a minimum. The "Lady Godiva Overture" opens the CD, and it is a lovely piece. The Lady's theme, first introduced on clarinet, is at once playful, fresh and innocent; and yet, (as only the East Europeans seem to be able to do it), sensual, sad and alluring at the same time. If you like the freshness and naivete of Janacek's "Vixen," Novak's Overture is just a little more to the right-it's haunting and beautiful music.

The next piece, "Toman and the Wood Nymph" (1907) is IMHO the near hit. It's interesting and imaginative but sprawling and stylistically uneven-- oscillating between the meat-and-potatoes sound of Dvorak and a darting, modernish impressionism that reminds me of the rhythms, colors and harmonies of Stravinsky's "Scherzo Fantastique"--ironically composed one year *later*

than Toman. Novak, in the heat of inspiration simply outdoes himself with the nymph music, and unfortunately other parts of the tone-poem seem earth-bound in comparison.

"Die Profundis" reminds me of a famous meeting that never took place between Novak and Shostakovich, where Shostakovich made that famous comment to Novak: "...the symphony must embrace the entire percussion section...."

Composed in 1941, Profundis was written during the Nazi occupation of the Czech nation and riskily premiered in Brno, whose population was half German and half Czech. The liner notes state that Novak "never disguised his hatred of the occupying German forces...." and as you can imagine Profundis, ("Out of the depths I have cried," Psalm 30), is hardly subtle. A sinister march grows out the depths and slowly, (magisterially), evolves into a double fugue, which builds in intensity and agitation over the span of 16 minutes. One can hear faint echoes of Shostakovich and Mahler throughout, but Novak never looses his own voice. (Delightfully snarling brass playing from the BBC.)

The radiance of the apotheosis that concludes the piece, however, is hardly suggestive of redemption gained through peace and brotherhood--no gleaming, upheld chalices here!-- it is more the distorted kind of light that one would see reflected off a vengefully wrought and blood-spattered sword. And what a big sword Novak symbolically waves at the German forces--with full orchestra, brass fanfares, organ, piano, bells, harps, and a triple forte bass drum roll every 4th beat, it's enough to make noise-sensitive neighbors definitely reach for theirs.

Enjoy.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound works-extremely well played by Pesek & the BBC., September 4, 2000

By 

David Anthony Hollingsworth (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Novák: Lady Godiva/De profundis/Toman and the Wood Nymph (Audio CD)

Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949) belong to the post-Dvorak generation of composers (Suk, Ostrcil, Fibich, & Foerster) who emerged by the turning of the 20th century. Generally, Suk & Novak are considered the most important & influencial composers of that generation. But others, especially Ostrcil, have been given due credit, and rightfully so.

How to describe Novak's works, especially on first encounterings? Personal & deep, thematically fresh, somewhat progressive, & evocative orchestration. Novak was particularly attracted to the world of nature & to the female psyche (like Respighi & Strauss respectively). The Overture to Jaroslav Vrchlicky's play "Lady Godiva" comes to mind. I'm tempting to call it a symphonic fantasy, for it has the independence about it & paints a all-round picture of Lady Godiva (as sensitive, and strong sense of inner strength-represented by strings & harp) and of her husband, Leofric (as oppressive & selfish-depicted by the brass). It's an appealing, yet an expansive work, with a staunch opening not too remotely reminiscence of Smetana while echoes of Strauss can be detected, especially in the slow passages. The symphonic poem "Toman & the Wood Nymph" (1906-7) is likewise Straussian with touches of Respighi, Debussy, & Ravel (with the impressionistic-type beginning & the colourful & descriptive phrasings especially of the woodwinds & lower strings).

A powerful masterpiece, "De profundis" (1941), was composed in response to the Nazi occupation of Czechslovakia. Interestingly, it has a couple of similarities with Kodaly's "Psalmus Hungaricus" in that, apart from the large orchestra (with organ) required: 1) It has a very grim, serious, & tragic beginning, turning to hope & optimism, and 2) "De profundis" has biblical connotations embetted (the title "De profundis" was taken from the opening line Psalm 130 "Out of the depths have I cried"). Kodaly's masterpiece has a greater sense of anger & defiance at the first two movements while Novak's "De profundis" is mournful & tragic @ its' first movement (indeed, he shared the type of tragic expressions of Smetana). The second movement is likewise profound and provide a wonderful transition from anguish to light (the lightness exuberantly expressed in the Finale). Personally, I felt that Novak could have added a chorus in this deep, profound work. It would have earned a more deeper & longlasting impression.

Libor Pesek & the BBC Philharmonic gave vivid, authoritative, and passionate performances throughout & I especially admire the organ playing in "De profundis." It's a pity that the organist was never mentioned anywhere in this recording. Nevertheless, this enterprising disc is a type that should cast shame upon those refusing to explore beyond the "over-exposed" horizon. Dare I hope for Libor Pesek to embark on Novak's most important work, the cantata "The Storm?"