Search - Josef [Composer] Suk, Andrew Mogrelia, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) :: Suk: A Summer's Tale; A Winter's Tale

A fine bargain-basement performance of a Suk work, but...

10/20/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first that Naxos seems to have ventured into the work of the Czech composer Josef Suk, and I must say that they deserve praise for filling in the budget side of the catalogue when it comes to his works. Unfortunately, not everything is perfect with this recording. The op. 29 fares much better -- but I can't decide if that's because it's a bit more tightly organized than Suk's much earlier work, the Winter's Tale. In any case, Mogrelia's op. 29 has some wonderful moments, but many times he seems to let Suk's fragile masterpiece fall apart, lingering too long in spots. Libor Pesek's version on Virgin is probably the one to have of the Summer's Tale, unless you don't wish to pay more, in which case this performance will be good enough. I am not as familiar with the op. 9 work, and I think this is the first modern recording of it. Unfortunately, the music itself is a curious let-down, especially if you're expecting the melodic richness of, say, the Asrael Symphony (a must-listen, incidentally). Apparently Suk's usually burgeoning creativity was burning a little lower when he wrote this one. The recording itself is wonderful, rich and full, with no overload at the heavily scored climaxes of the Summer's Tale and clarity in the finely scored opening lines of the op. 9."