Search - Patrice Michaels, William Watson, Tami Jantzi :: Vorisek: Symphony in D; Mass in B-Flat

Arresting Music from a Composer of Promise

12/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I appreciate that the other reviewer on this page wanted to leave himself some wiggle room, but I'll go all the way and say this recording is a definite five on all counts--music, performance, and sound. As to the music, while the symphony has been recorded a number of times before, I am not aware of a recording of the mass, and it's good to have this finely crafted, if less than heaven storming, work on disc. Though it shows its Haydnesque pedigree (with references to "The Creation" in some of its solo work), clearly this is a different order of music from the monumental masses of Haydn or Beethoven, with a subdued finale, unlike those of Haydn's six great masses, with their almost militant calls for peace on earth. In fact, some of the more intimate moments, delicately and beautifully colored by the woodwind, are among the best in Vorisek's mass. But then there are interesting moments in the more vociferous music as well, such as the Handelian fugue on Quoniam, or the unusual minor-key Et resurrexit.There is a rival version of the more familiar symphony from Charles Mackerras on Hyperion, and the disc has an appealing program as well, featuring a symphony and overture by another promising composer who died young, the Spaniard Juan Arriaga. I haven't heard that recording, but having heard a number of others I'm ready to say that Freeman's interpretation is first rate. While the fiery first movement may move a bit more slowly in his version than in others, Freeman compensates with greater care over details. In fact both the conductor and the excellent recording bring out Vorisek's sensitive scoring, the interesting string figurations and piquant wind and brass interjections. While Vorisek's symphony is sometimes compared to Beethoven's Second, Freeman makes it abundantly clear that the Czech's symphony is a far more mature work, capturing the noble melancholy and darker emotions of the memorable slow movement, the punch and vigor of the dark-hewed scherzo, and the exciting pulse of the finale coda with its skirling woodwinds. In fact Freeman's performance shows us that while Beethoven's first two symphonies are clearly the work of a gifted composer, it's hard to imagine that in a few short years Beethoven would compose the incredible Eroica Symphony. With Vorisek's work, we can imagine symphonic music of stature might have followed if the Czech composer's life hadn't been cut short around the same age that Beethoven was turning from a merely gifted composer into a truly great one."