Information
Composer: Josef Suk
- Spring, Op. 22a
- Summer impressions, Op. 22b
- Piano pieces, Op. 7
- Moods, Op. 10
Jonathan Plowright, piano
Date: 2018
Label: Hyperion
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This disc of early piano music offers a different side from Suk the maximalist, with works such as Asrael and Ripening. And it sounds as if Jonathan Plowright has thoroughly enjoyed his foray into the world of the character piece – a million miles away from his superb Brahms series for BIS. If collective titles along the lines of Summer Impressions or Spring might smack of Walter Carroll, let me reassure you now that this is music of great inventiveness, full of flights of imagination and no small degree of virtuosity.
The first number of the Spring suite bursts in with quasi-orchestral textures before giving way to more lyrical sentiments, with a delicately fluttering ending. This is followed by ‘The Breeze’, with its gently skittering rhythms, the mood shifting again for the pulsating ‘Awaiting’, so full of hope and yearning. In the suite’s final number, ‘Longing’, Suk proffers first a tumbling melody and then proceeds to fleck it with ornamentations of the utmost tenderness, before building to a climax that reminds us that these are miniature in scale only, certainly not in musical ambition, and Plowright’s skills as a colourist are heard to great effect.
The modally inclined ‘At Noon’ from Summer Impressions opens innocently enough, the right hand repeating an interval of a fourth and then a fifth, but the way Suk harmonises it is extraordinarily potent. After this, ‘Children at Play’ is delightfully unpredictable and full of spirit – faintly Bartókian in its jumpy rhythms, though gentler in its harmonic language. ‘Evening Mood’ initially calms matters, though it rises to an emotional storm at its centre, with Suk conjuring a sense of both the epic and the intimate during its six-minute duration.
Space precludes listing every gem but other highlights are the musical-box delicacy of the ‘Humoresque’, the gorgeous languor of the two Idylls from Op 7, which are seductively harmonised, and the sheer playfulness of the Capriccio from Moods. Plowright’s affection for this music is palpable at every turn and he’s given a warmly immediate recording. Terrific notes from Jan Smaczny complete this veritable box of delights.
-- Harriet Smith, Gramophone
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Josef Suk (4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer and violinist. Known as one of Antonín Dvořák's favorite pupils, Suk became very close to his mentor and later married Dvořák's daughter, Otilie. He was also the grandfather of famed Czech violinist Josef Suk (1929-2011). Suk, alongside Vítězslav Novák and Otakar Ostrčil, is considered one of the leading composers in Czech Modernism. Although he wrote mostly instrumental music, he occasionally branched out into other genres, such as chamber music and music for solo piano. As a violinist, Suk was a member of the Bohemian Quartet.
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Jonathan Plowright (born 1959 in Yorkshire) is an English classical pianist. He studied with Alexander Kelly at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and with Julio Esteban at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Plowright has performed worldwide as recitalist, appeared with leading orchestras and ensembles, made many commercial recordings and appeared on radio and TV broadcasts. He champions neglected music from Polish Romantic composers, such as Zygmunt Stojowski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Juliusz Zarębski, which he has recorded for Hyperion Records and Warner Classics.
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Thanks Ronald Do for SUK music .
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