Zdeněk Fibich - Orchestral Works Vol. 3 (Marek Štilec)

Information

Composer: Zdeněk Fibich

1. Othello, Op. 6
2. Záboj, Slavoj a Luděk, Op. 37
3. Toman and the Wood Nymph, Op. 49
4. The Tempest, Op. 46
5. Spring, Op. 13

Czech National Symphony Orchestra

Marek Štilec, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: Naxos

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Review

This is the third CD of a projected series of eight that will feature all of Fibich's orchestral scores. The first volume received my own enthusiastic welcome, though my colleague Nick Barnard was somewhat more critical. Gary Higginson enjoyed the performances and praised the recording quality in the second volume and Paul Corfield Godfrey's verdict was also generally favourable. This third disc has already been very positively reviewed by MusicWeb International's Editor Rob Barnett, a real enthusiast, it seems, for both the composer and this emerging Naxos series. Nick Barnard's review of Vol. 3 should be onsite by the time the present review is published.

As Rob has already written about the individual works on this release in some detail, there is no need for me to repeat that information. Taking a broader overview, however, it is worth noting that, unlike many late 19th century occasional pieces, all these approachable scores - reminiscent of Dvorak at times, Smetana or Liszt at others - make a strong and genuinely memorable impact from the first hearing. I was particularly captivated by Fibich's very individual take on Othello, full of touches - or, indeed, quite substantial passages - that strongly call to mind the First Symphony that he was to produce a decade later (sample 4:50-8:46, for example). Toman and the wood nymph also exhibits that same direct appeal.

Once again the players of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra offer us convincing accounts that demonstrate their easy empathy with Fibich's idiom. They have, moreover, been very well recorded by the team responsible for the two successful earlier releases. The project to record all Fibich's orchestral scores is clearly something of a labour of love for conductor Marek Štilec. His detailed research has, according to the usefully informative booklet with notes by Richard Whitehouse, corrected several long-standing errors in performance practice and thereby restored a great deal of authenticity to the music-making heard on this disc.

The youthful Mr Štilec - he is just 29 years old - has, incidentally, undergone something of a makeover for this volume of the ongoing Fibich series. Whereas his publicity photograph used to make him look all of a fresh-faced 18, he has now adopted a rather severe pair of eyeglasses and a little five o'clock shadow. If those are gimmicky attempts to suggest that he possesses more conductorly gravitas these days, they are entirely unnecessary: these assured and completely idiomatic performances are quite enough on their own to demonstrate his expert professional credentials.

I look forward with the greatest enthusiasm to listening to the remaining releases in this engrossing and enlightening series.

— Rob Maynard

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Zdeněk Fibich (21 December 1850 – 15 October 1900) was a Czech composer. He studied under such prominent musicians as Ignaz Moscheles and Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig and Mannheim, then settled in Prague from 1874. Influenced early by Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and later by Wagner, Fibich composed many songs and operas in German, gaining acclaim from German critics but less so from Czechs. His later operas were mostly in Czech, but often based on non-Czech literary works. He integrated Bohemian folk elements into his chamber music and was a pioneer in composing Czech nationalist tone poems.

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Marek Štilec (born 18 July 1985 in Prague) is a Czech conductor known for his interpretations of Czech Romantic and contemporary music. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, followed by masterclasses with renowned conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas and Jorma Panula. Štilec has collaborated with many orchestras around the world and recorded over 30 albums for labels such as Naxos and Supraphon. He is also active in historically informed performance, and is the founder of the Wranitzky Kapelle and artistic director of Academy Prague Mannheim.

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