Unsung Composers

The Music => Composers & Music => Topic started by: Alan Howe on Sunday 03 March 2019, 18:35

Title: Karel Kovařovic: Psohlavci (The Dogheads)
Post by: Alan Howe on Sunday 03 March 2019, 18:35
Does anyone know Kovařovic's opera, dating from 1895-7? There's a recording on Supraphon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000026ATZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000026ATZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Title: Re: Karel Kovařovic: Psohlavci (The Dogheads)
Post by: M. Yaskovsky on Friday 08 March 2019, 08:15
I've owned this recording but eventually sold it. I found the record quality very mediocre, voices very much in front and the orchestra about at the other end of the street. Bathing chamber acoustics. And for the work itself I thought it was rather trying to imitatie The Bartered Bride too much.
Title: Re: Karel Kovařovic: Psohlavci (The Dogheads)
Post by: Alan Howe on Friday 08 March 2019, 17:11
Yes: one has to treat this virtually as a historic recording. In those terms, it's perfectly acceptable. The work itself isn't really all that interesting, although I wouldn't really compare it to Smetana's masterpiece as its idiom is clearly that of a later composer (it was written 30 years after the Smetana).