Bedřich Smetana - Complete Orchestral Works (Theodore Kuchar)

Information

Composer: Bedřich Smetana

CD1

• Má Vlast

CD2

• Wallenstein's Camp, Symphonic Poem Op. 14
• Håkon Jarl, Symphonic Poem Op. 16
• Richard III, Symphonic Poem Op. 11
• Overture to 'The Bartered Bride'
• Three Dances from 'The Bartered Bride'
• Doktor Faust, Overture to the puppet-play by Matěj Kopecký
• Venkovanka, The Peasant Woman, Polka
• Nasim Devam, To our Girls, Polka

CD3

• Festive Symphony in E Major Op. 6
• Festive Overture in C major
• Festive Overture in D major, Op. 4
• Prague Carnival, Introduction & Polonaise
• March of the National Guard
• Shakespeare Festival March, Op. 20

Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra

Theodore Kuchar, conductor

Date: 2008

Label: Brilliant Classics

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Review

This three-disc set, billed as Smetana’s complete orchestral works, isn’t really complete, at least to the extent that there are a few other miscellaneous bits from operas besides The Bartered Bride that might have been included. Nevertheless, it is easily the best collection of its type, finer than Valek’s on Supraphon both in terms of performance and sonics, and more complete as well. In addition to the individual works listed above, you also get a couple of occasional overtures, plus some very attractive dance music that Smetana wrote for various functions.

All of the performances are very good. Particularly noteworthy is the Triumph Symphony, an early but substantial piece that has long been ignored because it was written in homage to the Austrian nobility and contains Haydn’s Emperor’s Hymn in three of its movements. Theodore Kuchar and his forces tackle Ma Vlast with plenty of enthusiasm and vigor; indeed, from Sarka onward this is one of the best versions available. Tabor and Blanik, especially, have seldom sounded more spontaneous and less repetitious. The three “Swedish” tone poems are also full of the necessary Romantic blood and thunder in these performances, while the Bartered Bride excerpts (terrific Dance of the Comedians) truly sparkle.

The engineering is consistently good throughout–a bit lacking in bass, perhaps, but naturally balanced. The orchestra plays quite well–this is mostly familiar music, after all–but more significantly the horns and other brass retain their bright, Slavic timbre without turning thin and wobbly. At the price, this set will be very hard to beat, even if everyone will have their own favorite version of Ma Vlast from one of the work’s “heavy hitters” (Ancerl, Kubelik, Talich, Mackerras, etc).

— David Hurwitz

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Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. The basic materials from which Smetana fashioned his art, according to Newmarch, were nationalism, realism and romanticism. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land.

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Theodore Kuchar (born May 31, 1963 in New York City) is a Ukrainian American conductor of classical music and a violist. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and was principal violist in Cleveland, Helsinki and Cape Town. Kuchar was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine from 1994 to 2000, recording over 60 compact discs for Naxos Records and its Marco Polo label. Kuchar has been Chief Conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005, and Artistic Director of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra since 2011.

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