Antonín Dvořák; Vítězslav Novák - Spectre's Bride; The Storm (Jaroslav Krombholc)

Information

Composer: Antonín Dvořák; Vítězslav Novák

• Dvořák - The Spectre's Bride, Op. 69
• Novák - The Storm, Op. 42

Drahomíra Tikalová; Maria Tauberová

Beno Blachut; Ladislav Mráz

Vladimir Jedenáctík; Jaroslav Veverka

Czech Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra

Jaroslav Krombholc, conductor

Date: 1961; 1956

Label: Supraphon

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Review

Supraphon’s delving into their archives is turning out some classic performances that many older collectors will remember from the 1950s and 1960s, when the company did much to reveal little-known Czech music and artists to a wider world. The version of The Spectre’s Bride reissued here is valuable chiefly for the contributions of Drahomira Tikalova and especially Beno Blachut, both on superb form. For all its Victorian popularity, the work is not Dvorak at his greatest. Those who want a more modern version can turn to the Orfeo under Gerd Albrecht, recorded in 1991, though that performance is rather tame. It is probably worth putting up with this ancient but perfectly acceptable recording for the sake of Krombholc’s much stronger reading.

The Storm is much more of a rarity, and with no other version currently available this strange piece is worth attention here. Novak wrote it in 1910, setting a dramatic poem of Svatopluk Cech about a shipwreck (Czech works about the sea are unusual, for obvious reasons, but Novak had made many ventures on to the North Sea). It is not summarized in the booklet, but broadly concerns a girl watching a storm-tossed ship from the safety of the shore. Events on the ship include a mutiny, and a scene of extraordinary passion when a girl on the ship falls into the arms of the man who has been her slave but is now revealed as a king in his native Africa: their devastating love scene is also the death of the ship. Vladimir Lebl, in his useful little book Vitezslav Novak (Prague: 1968), declares that Novak was drawing a parallel “between the passions of the elements and the inner passions of human nature”. The Storm is an odd and in some ways unsatisfactory piece, but it includes some remarkable music. The sound is a bit coarse, and some of the balance on this mono recording is poor, but curiosity is rewarded. It is a pity that it could not have been issued separately, but The Spectre’s Bride is just too long for one disc.

— John Warrack

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Antonín Dvořák (September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904) was a Czech composer. He was the second Czech composer to achieve worldwide recognition, after Bedřich Smetana. Following Smetana's nationalist example, many of Dvořák's works show the influence of Czech folk music, such as his  two sets of Slavonic Dances, the Symphonic Variations, and the overwhelming majority of his songs. Dvořák wrote in a variety of forms: nine symphonies, ten operas, three concertos, several symphonic poems, serenades for string orchestra and wind ensemble, more than 40 works of chamber music, and piano music.

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Vítězslav Novák (5 December 1870 – 18 July 1949) was a Czech composer and teacher associated with the neo-romantic tradition and Czech musical modernism. He studied at the Prague Conservatory, attending masterclasses with Antonín Dvořák alongside peers such as Josef Suk. Novák later taught at the Conservatory from 1909 to 1920, with Vítězslava Kaprálová among his students. His work was influential in shaping a national cultural identity following Czechoslovakia's independence in 1918. Known for his orchestral and operatic compositions, Novák's music blends rich Romantic expression with modernist elements

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Jaroslav Krombholc (30 January 1918 - 16 July 1983) was a Czechoslovak conductor. Born into a musical family in Prague, he studied at the Prague Conservatory and trained under Václav Talich. Krombholc held positions with several Czech orchestras, including those in Ostrava, Prague, and the national radio orchestra. He was especially known for interpreting contemporary Czech music, championing composers like Jan Seidel and Václav Dobiás. He recorded several Czech operas for Supraphon, including Janáček's Káťa Kabanová and Martinů's Julietta. His wife, Maria Tauberová, was a renowned Czech opera singer.

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