Zdeněk Fibich - Orchestral Works Vol. 5 (Marek Štilec)

Information

Composer: Zdeněk Fibich

• Symphony No. 3 in E minor, Op. 53
• Šárka, Op. 51: Overture
• Bouře (The Tempest), Op. 40, Act III: Overture
• Nevěsta messinská (The Bride of Messina), Op. 18, Act III: Funeral March

Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra

Marek Štilec, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Naxos

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Review

This fifth release in Naxos’s series devoted to Zdeněk Fibich’s orchestral music brings us the composer’s Third Symphony, his last and finest work in the genre, as well as orchestral excerpts from several of his most significant operatic works. The symphony was completed in 1898, two years before Fibich’s death at the age of 49, and is appealingly melodic and imaginatively scored. The outer movements lack something in symphonic rigour and impact but the radiance of the slow movement and the rollicking Scherzo make a strong impression.

The Funeral March from The Bride of Messina, the third of Fibich’s seven operas, has a dignity and stateliness that sounds distinctly Elgarian at times, while the Act 3 Overture from The Tempest, his fourth opera, is marked by a mix of fantasy and grotesquery. The Overture to Šárka, his penultimate and most well-known operatic work, is impassioned and sombre, in keeping with the story of the mythical Bohemian female warrior.

As with previous instalments in the series, the performances are conducted by Marek Štilec, whose preparations have included studying the composer’s manuscripts and other original sources to correct errors and open out unauthorised cuts. As well prepared and affectionate as Štilec’s performances are, however, the results are slightly deficient in the communicative zeal that these works really need to make their full effect. In addition, the recording has a degree of hardness that tends towards brashness in the reproduction of the cymbals and other higher-pitched instruments. For the shorter pieces, the new Naxos recording is worth considering but the symphony is better heard in the Chandos recording conducted by Neeme Järvi.

— Christian Hoskins

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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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