Bedřich Smetana - Complete Orchestral Works (Theodore Kuchar)

Information

Composer: Bedřich Smetana

CD1:

1. Má Vlast: Vyšehrad
2. Má Vlast: Vlatava (The Moldau)
3. Má Vlast: Šárka
4. Má Vlast: From Bohemia's Meadows and Forests
5. Má Vlast: Tábor
6. Má Vlast: Blanik

CD2:

1. Wallenstein's Camp, Symphonic Poem Op. 14
2. Håkon Jarl, Symphonic Poem Op. 16
3. Richard III, Symphonic Poem Op. 11
4. Overture to 'The Bartered Bride'
5. Three Dances from 'The Bartered Bride': Polka
6. Three Dances from 'The Bartered Bride': Furiant
7. Three Dances from 'The Bartered Bride': Skocna (Dance of the Comedians)
8. Doktor Faust, Overture to the puppet-play by Matěj Kopecký
9. Venkovanka, The Peasant Woman, Polka
10. Nasim Devam, To our Girls, Polka

CD3:

1. Festive Symphony in E Major Op. 6: I. Allegro vivace
2. Festive Symphony in E Major Op. 6: II. Largo maestose
3. Festive Symphony in E Major Op. 6: III. Scherzo, allegro vivace
4. Festive Symphony in E Major Op. 6: IV. Finale, allegro non troppo ma energico
5. Festive Overture in C major
6. Festive Overture in D major, Op. 4
7. Prague Carnival, Introduction & Polonaise
8. March of the National Guard
9. Shakespeare Festival March, Op. 20

Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra

Theodore Kuchar, conductor

Date: 2008

Label: Brilliant Classics

https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/s/smetana-complete-orchestral-works/

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Review

Open a box of delights – here is all the vibrancy and colour Smetana offered

This set of Smetana’s orchestral works is the best possible antidote to an overdose of 19th-century angst. For here, despite the odd foray into darker emotions, is a whirl of nationalist gaiety, abandon and happiness, a glory of vibrant colour and Smetana’s beloved polka and march rhythms. Liszt’s shadow hangs over many of the more obviously “occasional” ceremonial pieces, yet Smetana’s identity is unmistakable in such evergreens as “Vltava” from Má vlast, the The Bartered Bride Overture or the Festive Symphony, Op 6, more formal than spontaneous yet expertly and cogently worked. Yet for the greater part he jubilantly nails his festive colours to the wall. In contrast, he sings his “wood note wild” with touching simplicity in “Blaník” from Má vlast; and if Venkovanka is more gentle than exuberant, its brief whirl-away end is no less typical.

The performances are of a superfine brilliance, energy and affection, making it invidious to single out this or that special success or the individual triumphs of wind, brass or strings. Here is music-making which, in Liszt’s famous definition of virtuosity, “conjures scent and blossom” and “breathes the breath of life” beautifully caught in Brilliant’s ambient but sharply focused and balanced sound.

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 8

https://www.allmusic.com/album/smetana-ma-vlast-complete-orchestral-works-mw0001866039

https://www.amazon.com/Smetana-Vlast-Complete-Orchestral-Works/dp/B0012OVFIY

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Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. The basic materials from which Smetana fashioned his art, according to Newmarch, were nationalism, realism and romanticism. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed%C5%99ich_Smetana

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Theodore Kuchar (born May 31, 1963 in New York City) is a Ukrainian American conductor of classical music and a violist. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and was principal violist in Cleveland, Helsinki and Cape Town. Kuchar was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine from 1994 to 2000, recording over 60 compact discs for Naxos Records and its Marco Polo label. Kuchar has been Chief Conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005, and Artistic Director of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra since 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Kuchar

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