Topics

It has been quite awhile since Dutton Epoch and Lyrita have issued new releases. I begin to wonder if these two important labels are defunct or on the way to extinction? Their websites offer no clues that I can see. So, if anyone out there can offer up to date information about these labels (hopefully) future plans, please share it with the rest of us.

Mykulh

It has been quite awhile since there have been new releases from Dutton Epoch and its sub-labels. Does anyone out there have any knowledge of what is going on with this valuable label? Its own website does not offer any clues.

For those who are interested, my new Discography of French Concertos has just appeared on MusicWeb International. Hope you'll take a look and let me know if there are recordings I missed or supplied incorrect information for.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/Ntl_discogs/French_concertos/French_concertos1.htm

Thanks,

Michael Herman

For those of you who consult them, I am pleased to announce that my newest discogrphy: Scandinavian, Finnish and Baltic Concertos has just appeared on MusicWeb International. Hope you'll take a look.

Mykulh


http://www.musicweb-international.com/Scandinavian_concertos/SCANCONS1.htm

For those of you who consult my discographies, I am pleased to announce that my newest work "Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Concertos" has just appeared on the MusicWeb International site. To take a look, go here:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/Russian_and_Soviet_Discography/RUSSIAN_AND_SOVIET_CONCERTOS_1.htm

If you spot any corrections or omissions, please let me know.

Best wishes,

Michael Herman

[MusicWeb International]

All of my Discographies that appear on MusicWeb International have been updated to reflect new releases and discoveries as of April 2012. Those of you who have been sending me additions and corrections (for which I am truly grateful) can see their contributions incorporated into the various works. So, please take a look at:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/herman_discogs.htm

Michael Herman (a.k.a. Mykulh)

Czech Post-Romantic Symphonies

Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) and Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) were the founders of the Czech nationalist school of composition. The latter's cycle of nine symphonies is the fount from which later Czech symphonism springs. Zdenĕk Fibich (1850-1900) and Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859-1951), born in the next decade after Dvořák, composed 3 and 5 symphonies, respectively, but in a less overtly national style. Dvořák's most prominent pupil, Josef Suk (1874-1935), produced 2 symphonies, and, along with his fellow-pupil, Vitĕzslav Novák (1970-1949), became the foremost composition teachers of the following generations. Fibich's pupil, Otakar Ostrčil (1879-1935) composed a Symphony and a Sinfonietta. Leoš Janáček, who also studied briefly with Dvořák, composed a world-famous Sinfonietta as well as a "Danube Symphony" that was reconstructed after his death. All of the above have been recorded and, with Bohuslav Martinů's cycle of 6 Symphonies, constitute the primary recorded Czech national symphonic repertoire. Novák's Autumn Symphony for Chorus and Orchestra (1931-4) and May Symphony for Vocal Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra (1943-5) still await their first commercial recordings.
Symphonies by Czech composers in the post-World War II Communist era have also been well represented on records issued on the Supraphon and Panton labels but only a small fraction of this output has been reissued on CD.
However, there is also another group of composers, born in the very late 19th and very early 20th centuries that might easily be characterized as "the lost generation of Czech symphonists." A few orchestral works by these composers were recorded in the LP era but, with the exceptions indicated below, their symphonies remain almost totally unsung. What follows is information about their symphonic output as well as their teachers of composition.

Vladimir Ambros (1891-1956)
teacher: Janáček
Symphonies Nos. 1 (1941), 2 "Symphony of Nature" (1944), 3 "About the Beautiful Country" (1954), Sinfonietta (1938-9)


Emil Axman (1887-1949)
teacher: Novák
Symphonies Nos. 1 "Tragic" (1926), 2 "Giocosa" (1927), 3 "Spring" (1928), 4 "Eroica" (1932), 5 "Dithyrambic" (1936), 6 "Patriotic" (1942)


Josef Bartovsky (1884-1964)
teacher: Novák
Symphonies Nos.1 in A major (1922) 2 in C sharp minor (1942)


Pavel Bořkovec (1894-1972)
teachers: Foerster, Křička, Suk
Symphonies Nos. 1 in D flat major (1926-7), 2 (1955, recorded), 3 (1959, recorded), Sinfoniettas Nos. 1 for Chamber Orchestra (1945), 2 (1963-4, recorded)


Osvald Chlubna (1893-1971)
teacher: Janáček
Symphonies Nos. 1 "Of Life and Love" (1927), 2 "Brno Symphony" (1946), 3 in G major (1960)


Zdenĕk Folprecht (1909-1961)
teachers: Foerster, Novák
Symphonies Nos. 1 (1937), 2 (1950), 3 (1951), 4 (1959)


Karel Janeček (1903-1974)
teachers: Křička, Novák
Symphonies Nos. 1, Op. 17 (1935-40), 2, Op. 30 (1954-5)


Ottakar Jeremiáš (1892-1962)
teacher: Novák
Symphonies Nos. 1 (1910-11), 2, Op. 30 (1914-5)


Karel Boleslav Jirák (1891-1972)
teacher: Novák, Foerster
Symphonies Nos. 1 in C minor, Op. 10 (1915-6), 2 in F major, Op. 25 (1921-4), 3, Op. 37 (1929-38), 4, Op. 52 "Episodes from an Artist's Life" (1945), 5, Op. 60 (1949, recorded), 6, Op. 90 (1957-70), Sinfonietta for Small Orchestra, Op. 45b (1944)


Rudolf Karel (1880-1945)
teachers: Dvořák, Karel Knittl (1853-1907), Karel Stecker (1861-1918)
Symphony in F minor (1904, lost), Symphony in E flat minor, Op. 15 "Renaissance" (1910-11), Symphony in D major (1917, lost), Symphony for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 20 (1914, rev. 1924), Symphony for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 27 "Resurrection" (1923-7), Symphony in D major, Op. 38 "Spring" (1935-8) (sources are confusing and contradictory)


Miroslav Krejčí (1891-1964)
teacher: Novák
Symphonies Nos. 1in G major, Op. 70 (1944-6), 2 in D major, Op. 90, 3 (1955)


Jaroslav Křička (1882-1969)
teacher: Karel Stecker (1861-1918)
Symphonies (Nos. 1) in D minor "Spring" (1905-6, rev. 1942), 2 (unfinished), Sinfonietta for Strings and Timpani (1940-1)


Jaroslav Kvapil (1892-1958)
teachers: Janáček, Josef Nešvera (1842-1914), Max Reger
Symphonies Nos. 1 (1913-4), 2 (1921), 3 (1936-7), 4 "Victorious" (1943)


Vilém Petrželka (1889-1967)
teachers: Janáček, Novák
Symphony in 3 Movements, Op.13 "The Eternal Return (1922–3), Symphony, Op. 56 (1955-6), Sinfonietta, Op. 38 (1941, recorded), Pastoral Sinfonietta, Op. 51 (1951, recorded)


Jaroslav Řídký (1897-1956)
teachers: Křička, Foerster
Symphonies Nos. 1, Op. 3 (1924), 2 (with obligato cello), Op. 4 (1925), 3, Op. 8 (1927), 4, Op. 10 (1928), 5, Op. 17 (1931), 6, Op. 35 "The Year 1938" (unfinished sketch), 7, Op. 47 (1955, recorded) (1938), Sinfonietta in C minor, Op. 1 (1923)


Boleslav Vomáčka (1887-1965)
teacher: Novák
Symphony in F major, Op. 44 "The Czech Eroica" (1944-6)


Slavá Vorlová (1894-1973)
teachers: Novák, Řídký
Symphony JM (1947-8)


For additional information about Czech symphonies that have been recorded, go to my Discography of East-Central European and Balkan Symphonies at the following address:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Balkan_discography/ECE_Balkan_Symphonies1.htm

Main sources of information:

(1)  Contemporary Czechoslovak Composers (edited by Čeněk Gardavský). Prague and Bratislav: Panton, 1965.
(2) Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of
Musicians, 8th edition. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992.

I am compiling a discography of Symphonies by Asian composers on CDs and LPs for online publication on MusicWeb International. I am especially curious about commercial recordings of symphonies by Chinese and Korean composers. All information would be greatly appreciated and acknowledges.

Thanks in advance,

Michael