Camerata Zürich releases CD of Janáček, Suk and Dvořák | EarRelevant

CD REVIEW:

Leoš Janáček: On An Overgrown Path
Camerata Zürich; Igor Karsko, direction/lead violin; Maïa Brami: poet/speaker
Josef SUK: Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale “St. Wenceslas,” Op. 35
Leoš JANÁČEK: On An Overgrown Path
Antonín DVOŘÁK: Notturno in B-major, Op. 40
ECM New Series 2597
Release date: November 26, 2021

Giorgio Koukl | 29 NOV 2021

A historical Swiss string orchestra founded in 1957 by conductor Räto Tchupp and since then continuing its mainly regional activity, Camerata Zürich has reached the goal to be considered by a very prestigious label like ECM. It is definitely an achievement and probably an excellent booster for the group and its concertmaster, Igor Karsko.

cover art

For this CD, the choice was made to rearrange for a string orchestra a well-known piano suite of the well known Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) called On an Overgrown Path (“Po zarostlém chodníčku”), originally written for harmonium, but in the course of creation, which lasted more than 11 years, was definitely destined by the composer for piano solo.

Together the fifteen pieces are around 30 minutes, depending on how one conceives the relatively free structure. So, to obtain a viable duration for a CD, two more pieces were added to start and finish this album: as a sort of intro, Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale “St. Wenceslas,” Op. 35 by Josef Suk (1874-1935) was chosen; with the Notturno in B-major op. 40 by Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) as the final piece.

Maia Brami, a French-Jewish writer, completes this installment with her poetry, written for this occasion, with which she tries to insert some insights into the composer’s world, or at least what she retains to be the poetry apt to discover the inner world of Janáček.

Daniel Rummler, a young violinist, was entrusted with the delicate work of transcribing the piano score to string orchestra. Despite the obvious and enormous difficulties of such a task, I have to say that Mr. Rumler, himself a student of Slovak musical institutes, did an excellent job giving the richness of all the tiny details with great precision.

The orchestra is doing a good job, too. The range of dynamics, the considerable care for every single element is fascinating and surprising. Mr. Karsko delivers first-class precision, assisted by the Swiss Radio engineers to obtain an excellent sonic landscape.

There is the sort of prologue represented by Josef Suk’s work, which already gives the listener a roadmap of what will be the aesthetic solution of the whole CD.

This music is played with great pathos, sometimes on the brink of “Hollywood” sound. But with this auditory sensation, this is still stylistically acceptable. Where things are getting out of control is the sound of Janáček. This score, edgy, passionate but never going into the realm of artificial sweetness, is simply denatured by this way of playing.

Let’s take, for example, track number 6 called “They chattered like swallows.”

The most characteristic elements of Janáček’s writing (the ostinato repeated figures, the wild elements disregarding the most current ways of writing music in his time, all that transformed Janáček into a now highly regarded genius of music) is all sort of combed into a more acceptable, honey-sweet picture, well suited for a wider acceptance of the public.

Once again, when to the final Notturno in B-major op. 40 of Antonín Dvořák, this way of playing gets far more acceptable and even has its charm.

The well-written liner notes by Thomas Meyer and the necessary English translations of the poetry round out this ECM CD. ■

Giorgio Koukl is a Czech-born pianist/harpsichordist and composer who resides in Lugano, Switzerland. Among his many recordings are the complete solo piano works and complete piano concertos of Bohuslav Martinů on the Naxos label. He has also recorded the piano music of Tansman, Lutosławski, Kapralova, and A. Tcherepnin, amongst others, for the Grand Piano label. Koukl has most recently completed recording the solo piano music of Hungarian composer Tibor Harsányi.
(photo: Chiara Solari)

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