Eugen Suchoň - Orchestral Works (Neeme Järvi)

Information

Composer: Eugen Suchoň

• (01) Metamorfózy
• (06) Baladická suita, Op. 9
• (10) Symfonietta rustica

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

Date: 2015
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010849

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Eugen Suchoň’s early Balladic Suite (1935) here receives its third recording that I can trace, curiously as it is the weakest of the three scores gathered so attractively here. ‘Powerfully atmospheric and moving though it is – and excellently composed’, according to Deryck Cooke’s assessment of it back in 1961 (with which I concur), Suchoň still lay in Novák’s shadow, and his best works were yet to come.

The two couplings are two of ‘his best’, dating from the 1950s and revealing him in full maturity, not least in his enchanting command of orchestration. This is heard to maximum advantage in the opening (and longest) work, Metamorphoses (1953), a vibrant orchestral concerto vividly scored, leaping off the page the way its ponderous subtitle (‘Variations on Original Themes in the Form of a Suite for Orchestra’) does not. Suchoň’s Slovak heritage is attractively displayed in five movements of increasing power and complexity. Järvi’s account with the superlative Estonian National Symphony Orchestra fair fizzes with excitement, outpacing Ko≈ler’s older Slovak rival (which, by the by, still sounds very well) by almost five minutes; the Estonians are fleeter and more sure-fingered than either rival orchestra in the Balladic Suite, too.

While Suchoň’s harmonic idiom was subtly radical, based on extended tonality, he was at heart a traditionalist, as can be heard in the Symfonietta rustica (1955 56), an at times impressionistic expansion of a piano sonatina. Suchoň’s modal writing is sometimes fleetingly reminiscent of the English pastoralists, even Vaughan Williams, and this brief, pithy Symfonietta will appeal to all lovers of 20th-century British music as much as to Slovakophiles. Superb sound and performances throughout make this the reference recording for Suchoň outside the operas and the perfect introduction to his art. Recommended.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/suchon-not-quite-wonderful-orchestral-works/
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Apr/Suchon_orchestral_CHAN10849.htm
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=12759
https://www.audaud.com/eugen-suchon-metamorfozy-balladicka-suita-symfonietta-rustica-estonian-nat-sym-orch-neeme-jarvi-chandos/
https://www.amazon.com/Eugen-Suchon-Baladick%C3%A1-Suita-Op/dp/B00U2OT3MA

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eugen Suchoň (September 25, 1908 – August 5, 1993) was one of the most important Slovak composers of the 20th century. He studied with Frico Kafenda at the Academy of Music in Bratislava and with Vítězslav Novák at the Prague Conservatoire. Suchoň's early compositions show an already distinguished and mature composer. In his later years, his style changed as he incorporated serialism into his compositions. Suchoň was professor and head of the Department of Music Education at the Teacher Training College in Bratislava (1948-60) and  professor of music theory at Bratislava University (1959-74).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Sucho%C5%88

***

Neeme Järvi (born June 7, 1937 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others. Järvi was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony (1982-2004), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1984-1988), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1990-2005) and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2012-2015), among others. He made over 400 recordings for labels such as BIS, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon and best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century classical music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neeme_J%C3%A4rvi

http://www.neemejarvi.ee/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!