Janáček; Foerster; Haas - Music for Wind Instruments (Belfiato Quintet)

Information

Composer: Leoš Janáček; Josef Bohuslav Foerster; Pavel Haas

• Foerster - Wind Quintet D Major, Op. 95
• Haas - Wind Quintet, Op. 10
• Janáček - Youth. Sextet for Wind Quintet and Bass Clarinet

Belfiato Quintet

    Oto Reiprich, flute

    Jan Souček, oboe

    Jiří Javůrek, clarinet

    Ondřej Šindelář, bassoon

    Kateřina Javůrková, horn

&

Jindřich Pavliš, bass clarinet

Date: 2017

Label: Supraphon

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Review

The three works here were composed over a two-decade span by a brace of Moravians – Pavel Haas representing one strand of the School of Janáček that was to be so brutally swept away during the Second World War – and the Bohemian Foerster, long versed in the Austro-Germanic muse.

Foerster’s Wind Quintet, one of his most celebrated chamber pieces, dates from 1909 and was composed when he was living in Vienna. I’m not sure as to the authority that it was Mahler’s suggestion that Foerster should write one, but it would have been a perceptive recommendation given a Czech composer’s affinity with winds, and the elevated state of Czech orchestral and chamber wind playing - or indeed the lineage dating back at least to Reicha. The writing is echt-Romantic, fulsome and frolicsome, melodic and colourful and beautifully balanced between the five instruments. The influence of Richard Strauss infuses itself most audibly in the slow movement, where there is a supremely articulate descant for the clarinet. The composer’s identity can be inferred from the Sousedská dance embedded in the Scherzo which is full of flair and fun. The finale meanwhile is avuncular, cast in the best traditions of native wind writing. It’s very obvious, not least from this fresh, warmly lyrical and technically accomplished performance just why Foerster’s work has kept its secure place in the repertoire.

Haas’s 1929 Quintet announces its own lineage almost immediately – the metric and motoric elements of the writing owe much to Janáček, the music emerging burbling, avid and chattering. It’s slightly different in the Preghiera, where the influence is more directly Gallic – specifically Ravel. Here Jiří Javůrek plays especially beautifully. But as those who know Haas’s String Quartets will appreciate, he could summon up wonderful sonorities and generate galvanising rhythms like the best of them, and does so in the scherzo, a so-called Ballo eccentric, a kind of stylised folk dance. The strangely unsettled elegiac finale strikes one as unusually impassioned: is it too fanciful to see it as a farewell to his old teacher, who had died the year before?

And so it’s appropriate that the disc ends with Mládí which is much the most-recorded of the three pieces. Its life-force is splendidly realised here, where bass clarinetist Jindřich Pavliš contribution is not merely essential but splendidly musical.

Given that the performances by the young members of the Belfiato Quintet are so fine, the recording so sympathetic and the booklet so attractive I feel churlish to note the playing time, though I do so as an observation on this occasion, rather than a criticism. Otherwise, this disc offers pure unadulterated pleasure.

— Jonathan Woolf

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Leoš Janáček (3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, one of the most important exponents of musical nationalism of the 20th century. He studied at the Prague, Leipzig, and Vienna conservatories. His earlier works was influenced by contemporaries such as Dvořák, but later he began to incorporate his studies of national folk music and language to create a highly original synthesis. Janáček's later works, which are his most celebrated, include operas Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works.

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Josef Bohuslav Foerster (30 December 1859 – 29 May 1951) was a Czech composer educated at the Prague Conservatory, where he later became a professor and director. He served as an organist and music critic in Prague, Hamburg, and Vienna. From 1893 to 1903, he lived in Hamburg, befriending Gustav Mahler and teaching at the conservatory. Foerster composed primarily for chorus and solo voice, often using religious texts. His works include five symphonies and operas such as Nepřemoženi, Srdce, and Bloud. While influenced by Mahler's Romanticism, his lyrical style reflects the legacy of Dvořák and Smetana.

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Pavel Haas (1899–1944) was a Czech composer. After studying at the Brno Conservatory and Leoš Janáček's master class, he composed over 50 works, though only 18 received opus numbers due to his self-critical nature. While still working in his family's business, Haas created a wide range of music including symphonic, choral, chamber, and theatrical compositions. His opera Šarlatán was premiered in 1938 to critical acclaim. In 1941, he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he continued to compose. In 1944, Haas was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered in the gas chambers.

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The Belfiato Quintet, founded in 2005, is a Czech wind ensemble trained at the Prague Conservatory, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Its members perform with top Czech orchestras such as the Czech Philharmonic and PKF–Prague Philharmonia. The ensemble has won multiple awards at international competitions, including the Henri Tomasi Competition and the Antonín Rejcha Prize. Belfiato performs regularly in the Czech Republic and internationally, appearing at major festivals and venues. Their recordings can be found on the Supraphon label.

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