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Sunday, August 16, 2020

Zdeněk Fibich - Orchestral Works Vol. 3 (Marek Štilec)


Information

Composer: Zdeněk Fibich
  1. Othello, Op. 6
  2. Záboj, Slavoj a Luděk, Op. 37
  3. Toman and the Wood Nymph, Op. 49
  4. The Tempest, Op. 46
  5. Spring, Op. 13

Czech National Symphony Orchestra
Marek Štilec, conductor

Date: 2014
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573197

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Review

Zdeněk Fibich’s tone-poems are roughly contemporaneous with Smetana’s and preceded Dvořák's Erben-inspired late masterpieces by a number of years. Othello, the first of the works included in this particular selection, opens to fanfares that recall those used in Smetana’s opera Libuše. Thereafter, Liszt seems a probable influence and at 3'42" a melody (Desdemona?) wafts in that references the extreme beauty of the literally hundreds of short piano pieces that Fibich wrote as musical love poems for his former student Anežka Schulzová.

Záboj, Slavoj and Luděk, which impressed Smetana (the frequent use of a bass pedal seems to anticipate Má vlast’s ‘Tábor’), starts dramatically on the strings, whereas the best-known piece here, Toman and the Wood Nymph, opens bizarrely with what sounds like a variant on Amy Woodforde-Finden’s ‘Pale hands I loved’ (though of course, with ‘Pale Hands’ being composed much later, it can’t possibly be). It’s in this particular piece that you sense the still distant worlds of Dvořák's late tone-poems. For evidence try the eerie writing for bassoons and low strings at 5'51". The Tempest, on the other hand (not to be confused with Fibich’s opera of the same name), employs a musical language that at times sounds as if it could have emanated from within these shores, while the ‘symphonic picture’ Spring calls upon verdant filigree even within the first couple of minutes (ie at 1'36").

Conductor Marek Štilec has been fastidious about sticking to authentic sources, correcting errors, restoring passages that were previously cut and so on. His performances might best be described as worthy, nothing in particular to moan about, just an overall lack of drive and excitement. One ideally needs a Kubelík or a ejna for this sort of material (Jakub Hrůša would be an excellent choice); and if tilec doesn’t quite cut the mustard, he and his Czech National Symphony Orchestra at least provide us with performances that are adequate to the task of appreciating some little-known and attractive Romantic music. Excellent notes by Richard Whitehouse.

-- Rob CowanGramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Aug14/Fibich_orchestral_v3_8573197.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Sep14/Fibich_orch_v3_8573197.htm
https://www.audaud.com/fibich-orchestral-works-vol-3-othello-zaboj-slavoj-and-ludek-toman-and-the-wood-nymph-the-tempest-spring-czech-national-sym-orch-marek-stilec-naxos/
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.573197&languageid=EN

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Zdeněk Fibich (21 December 1850 – 15 October 1900) was a Czech composer of classical music. Fibich studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles and composition with Salomon Jadassohn and Ernst Richter. Fibich is far less known than either Dvořák or Smetana, partly because during the rise of Czech nationalism, he was living within the Habsburg Empire. Fibich's instrumental works were generally written in the vein of the German romantics. The bulk of his operas are in Czech, although many are based on non-Czech sources. In his chamber music, Fibich makes use of Bohemian folk melodies and dance rhythms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zden%C4%9Bk_Fibich

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Marek Štilec (born 1985) is a Czech conductor. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Štilec has also participated in the masterclasses of Michael Tilson Thomas and Jorma Panula, among others. At the age of 17, Štilec founded the orchestra, Quattro, in which he acts as conductor and artistic leader. He collaborates with a wide range of leading orchestras and also works with many choirs. Štilec is a highly sought-after music label conductor and has recorded for Naxos and Arcodiva labels, as well as with Czech television and radio broadcasting.
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marek_%C5%A0tilec
https://www.arcodiva.cz/en/agency/instrumental-soloists/marek-stilec/

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