Prague Spring Festival Gold Edition Vol.3 (Dvořák A., Schumann R.)/ CPO/W.Sawallisch (2CD)

Prague Spring Festival Gold Edition Vol. 3

1. Antonín Dvořák - Svatební košile / The Spectre's Bride

Dramatic Cantata on Words by Karel Jaromír Erben for Soloists, Mixed Chorus and Large Orchestra Op.69

Gabriela Beňačková-Čápová, Richard Novák, Zdeněk Jankovský, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch conductor

2. Robert Schumann - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Op.54

Christoph Eschenbach piano, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlos Kleiber conductor

Antonín Dvořák’s cantata The Spectre’s Bride (Svatební košile) was performed at the Prague Spring in 1980. The conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923–2013) was a recurrent guest conductor in Prague. He displayed a long-term warm attitude to Czech music, having confirmed it already in his first concert in 1958, as well as on many other later occasions: in 1964 with a splendid performance of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8; in 1986 at the opening concert of the festival with Smetana’s cycle My Country; and in many other guest appearances at the festival or during the normal concert seasons. The performance of The Spectre’s Bride was the first act in his staging of Dvořák’s all-night vocal-orchestral works. In the following years, Sawallisch performed Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Requiem in Prague, which led also to successful studio recordings of the compositions. Unfortunately, the oratorio Saint Ludmila was not made part of the set. Peter Dvorský, who had been a rising world opera star from 1977, was invited to perform the tenor part in The Spectre’s Bride but he had to be substituted. The stand-in was Zdeněk Jankovský (1922–2014), one of the leading Czech tenors of the time, which turned out to be a fortunate choice thanks mainly to Jankovský’s lyrical timbre required by the role. The soprano Gabriela Beňačková (1947) already belonged to the world’s operatic regulars at the time – similarly to Richard Novák (1931), the bass in the role of the narrator. The world-famous Prague Philharmonic Choir was led by Josef Veselka (1910–1992). The Czech Philharmonic – with its artistic director Rafael Kubelík – stood at the birth of the Prague Spring International Festival in 1946 and has appeared regularly on the festival stages ever since. The all-night cantata The Specter’s Bride (referred to in Czech as The Wedding Shirts) owes its origin, like some of Dvořák’s other vocal-orchestral works, to impulses from abroad. In this case, it was an answer to the call of Alfred Littleton, co-owner of the Novello London publishing house, who represented Dvořák in England. The composer was inspired by a story taken over from anonymous sources and stylistically edited in 1755 by the German poet Gottfried August Bürger in his ballad Lenora. The story later appeared in a collection of national legends entitled The Bouquet (Kytice) by the Czech poet Karel Jaromír Erben where it was picked up by Dvořák. Unlike the original, which served as a basis for Anton Rejcha’s cantata Lenora, in Erben’s version the young lady – punished for her blasphemy by a visit of her dead lover’s evil spirit, who then kidnaps and tries to kill her – does not perish in the end, but is redeemed by her fervent prayer. The cantata bears unmistakable signs of Dvořák’s style: From the very beginning, it will captivate its listeners with its dramatic fervour (the girl’s abduction and the cemetery scene) and its heartfelt lyricism (the girl’s prayers). The premiere in 1885 did not take place in England but in Bohemia (in Pilsen and other Czech towns).

The Prague Symphony Orchestra, the second most significant orchestral ensemble in Prague after the Czech Philharmonic, also contributed to the extraordinary events of the Prague Spring in 1968. The guest conductor Carlos Kleiber (1930–2004), a son of the former world-famous conductor Erich Kleiber, who had also worked in Prague in earlier times, chose the following pieces for his programme: Dvořák’s Carnival; Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor with one of the world’s leading pianist – and a future world-renowned conductor – Christoph Eschenbach (1940); and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. By the time of this festival performance, both gentlemen had already become world-famous personalities. Carlos Kleiber had just taken over the Bavarian State Opera, from where he would leave as a freelance conductor five years later to be welcomed on prominent stages worldwide as a first-class star. Christoph Eschenbach had studied both piano and conducting; at the time of this concert, the former profession still prevailed. Later on, he would become a prominent European conductor and, over time, the artistic director of a number of significant orchestras (including ensembles in Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, and elsewhere). The two world masters in their field presented themselves together at the Prague Spring as young promising artists and aroused great sympathy among the festival audience.

Schumann’s Piano Concerto is one of the most prominent compositions in its genre. Together with Chopin’s and Liszt’s pairs of piano concertos, it is the most significant piano concertante piece from the period bridging Early and High Romanticism. Although Schumann composed more piano concertante compositions, this is his only major piano concerto. The first performance took place – after various ups and downs in terms of the work’s completion – in Dresden in early 1846. The soloist was Schumann’s wife Clara, on whose initiative the work had been created. It is a unique, interpretively demanding work of art, the main advantage of which does not lie in extremely exposed virtuosity, but rather in the depth and power of its artistic statement – a significant deviation from the prevalent output at the time. Bohuslav Vítek (Czech Radio)

Třetí album historické řady PRAGUE SPRING FESTIVAL - GOLD EDITION se zaměřilo na rok 1968 a 1980. V druhém jmenovaném roce přijel Wolfgang Sawalisch a provedl s Českou filharmonií, Pražským filharmonickým sborem a českými sólisty kantátu Svatební košile Antonína Dvořáka. Pohnutý rok 1968 připomíná nahrávka Schumannova Klavírního koncertu a moll s polským sólistou Christophem Eschenbachem, Symfonickým orchestrem hl. m. Prahy FOK a dirigentem Carlosem Kleiberem.

(Czech Radio 2022)