Czech Composers vs. Each Other

[Brahmsian]

With most votes chimed in already, looks like Janacek could take this one.

What's next?  Feldman tops Brahms!? 

[Luke]

Btw, to return to that earlier genre-to-genre comparison - in a comparative discussion of Czech orchestral music it is remiss to omit mention of Suk, probably the finest orchestrator of the lot of them, in the traditional Mahler-Strauss sense of the word anyway. Novak too, but Suk especially.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Btw, to return to that earlier genre-to-genre comparison - in a comparative discussion of Czech orchestral music it is remiss to omit mention of Suk, probably the finest orchestrator of the lot of them, in the traditional Mahler-Strauss sense of the word anyway. Novak too, but Suk especially.

Agree completely, and I thought of that too (just didn't want to over-complicate things). The only knock I would make against him is that he's not quite as distinctive a voice as the other three (he does sound a lot like other composers - not just Mahler and Strauss but also Tchaikovsky).

[Luke]

ooh, I don't know, in things like A Summer's Tale and About Mother there is a very distinctive Suk tone, to the orchestration (in the former) and to the harmony. Couldn't be anyone else - that's part of the reason I love his music a great deal!Q 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

ooh, I don't know, in things like A Summer's Tale and About Mother there is a very distinctive Suk tone, to the orchestration (in the former) and to the harmony. Couldn't be anyone else - that's part of the reason I love his music a great deal!Q 

You may be right. That gives me a reason to go back to A Summer's Tale, which I haven't listened to in years.

[Brian]

"The Blind Musicians" strikes me as an utterly brilliant little sound-picture. Haunting.

[k-k-k-kenny]

Surprised that in this knowledgeable company the name of Miloslav Kabeláč hasn't been mentioned previously.
True, my exposure to his output has so far been limited to the Mystery of Time, songs Op. 25, a bit of his 7th symphony and the piano Preludes Op. 30. The last, in particular, are of the highest quality, and get equal time with, say, Richter's account of Rachmaninoff preludes & etudes-tableaux or Koroliov's WTC in our house.
So that may explain the sole "other" vote.

[Sid]

My favourite of these is definitely Janacek. His string quartets are the works that I got to know by him initially, after borrowing them from the local library. Then more recently, I began to collect some of his other stuff. My favourite works by him are the Glagolitic Mass, Taras Bulba, the violin sonata and the solo piano works. I'm not much into opera, so his works in that genre don't interest me all that much (although I do have one of the Naxos cd's of Peter Breiner's arrangements of suites from the operas). What I like about his music, the solo piano music in particular, is that he is able to express a lot with very little. He had no interest in Austro-Germanic music (probably hated it) and this worked in his favour, he just did things the way he wanted to, no holds barred. Traditionalists said that he was destroying the "Czech tradition" but he was actually probably the first fully Czech composer, Dvorak having been much influenced by Brahms and Smetana by Wagner. So there you go...

He is currently No. 1 on this poll, but in the "real world" I think comparatively few classical listeners are really familiar with him. Far more people know Dvorak's 9th Symphony, Serenade, Cello Concerto, etc. or Smetana's Moldau. I've been listening to classical for over 20 years and Reicha and Zelenka strike me as even more obscure (don't remember hearing anything by them). As for Martinu, his music has been gaining some ground in recent decades, but like Janacek, he's nowhere near as popular as Dvorak or Smetana...

[Mirror Image]

As for Martinu, his music has been gaining some ground in recent decades, but he's nowhere near as popular as Dvorak or Smetana...

This saddens me, because I'm afraid that Martinu may never have the same kind of popularity as the other more famous Czech composers. Let's face it Martinu's music still only appeals to a specialized group of listeners like people on forums or the more hardcore fans who know there were many more great Czech composers besides Dvorak.

I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in the Czech Republic the other day and I asked him about Martinu's popularlity there and he said his music gets performed regularly, but then my friend asked me how much does Barber or Copland get played in the United States and I said "Hardly ever." What this tells me is that American orchestras are doing a huge disservice to their own country by not performing more American composers. Needless to say, this country is going downhill fast.

You know something is wrong when an American has to go to England or Russia to hear an American composer's music get performed.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Surprised that in this knowledgeable company the name of Miloslav Kabeláč

Yes, worth mentioning. I haven't heard much of his music, though I did get to hear the 4th Symphony in concert, conducted by Belohlavek. It made enough of an impression that I went out and bought the only available recording the next day.

You know something is wrong when an American has to go to England or Russia to hear an American composer's music get performed.

LOL - I've been living in Russia for almost 6 years, and I can tell you American music hardly gets played here.

BTW, I do think Copland and Barber get a fair amount of play in the US (as do more modern guys like Adams, Rouse and Carter). Maybe it depends where you live.

[Grazioso]

Reicha is getting gouged because not enough people know his music. Where's Fibich? And Benda and Vanhal...    I voted for Dvorak cause I like his looks; good, solid, conservative looking sort of person....

Czech it out: where the heck is Novak? (And Rosetti and Kalliwoda if earlier composers are in the game?)

[Superhorn]

  Mirror Image,I don't agree with you about the neglect of American composers here. In fact, they're played here much more than you realize,and contemporary composers such as Adams,Glass,Rouse,Bolcom,Carter, Heggie, Liberman and others aren't doing badly at all,and they can't complain that their music is being neglected, certainly not with conductors like Saltkin,Schwarz,Zinman,Alsop,Thomas etc and their admirable commitment to American composers.
  Unfortunately,Smetanan is known by very little of his output.
   How many people outside the Czech republic know his other operas Dalibor,The Kiss, Libuse, The Two Widows,The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, The Devil's Wall, etc? Not many.
  I've heard them all on CD, and they're very much worth hearing.
   The neglect of Dalibor, a true operatic masterpiece,and unlike the Bartred Bride,a grim tragedy,is inexcusable.
   It's sort of like Fidelio with a tragic ending,or you might call it
   Fidelio meets Bernie Goetz,as strange as this may sound.
   The role of Dalibor would be perfect for Ben Heppner.
     I also have the Supraphon recording of his only symphony, which uses the same melody as "Deutschland Uber Alles in the slow movement,long before it was appropriated by the Nazis. It's a most interesting work,and Karel Sejna conducts the Czech Philharmonic.
   Other Smetanan orchestra works,such as the tone poems Haakon Jarl and Wallenstein's Camp are also very effective and should be heard more often.
   The piano piece "Macbeth and the Witches",later orchestrated by some one else,contains startlingly 20th century harmonies and dissonances ,and you'd think it was written in the 1920s! 
   And I can't unerstand the neglect of Dvorak's 4 Slavonic Rhapsodies,not to be confused with the Slavonic Dances,which I have on Naxos. Get this recording ,with Zdenek Kosler and Libor Pesek dividing the conducting duties without delay !  You'll wonder where they've been all your life.
   

[The new erato]

What this tells me is that American orchestras are doing a huge disservice to their own country by not performing more American composers.

What this tells me (in addition to the current woeful underrecording of the major US orchestras) is that they are too dependent  on commercial funding and therefore functions as commercial undertakings to a larger degree than is usual in Europe.

[Brian]

What this tells me (in addition to the current woeful underrecording of the major US orchestras) is that they are too dependent  on commercial funding and therefore functions as commercial undertakings to a larger degree than is usual in Europe.

Exactly this. Since American orchestras draw a pittance in government funding (the Detroit Symphony Orchestra receives just $20,000 from the government), they are more heavily dependent on ticket sales, donations and corporate giving. In the current recession, corporate giving has fallen to essentially nil, which means that American orchestras' sole purpose right now is to maximize ticket sales. The programming has to reflect that goal.

[Gabriel]

Well, surprisingly Reicha has got one vote right now...

[Daverz]

I'd add Fibich and Novak to the mix.

I don't think of Reicha or Zelenka as particularly "Czech" in any way.  I don't think you get a Czech national identity in music until Smetana and Dvorak. 

[The new erato]

I'd add Fibich and Novak to the mix.

I don't think of Reicha or Zelenka as particularly "Czech" in any way.  I don't think you get a Czech national identity in music until Smetana and Dvorak.

Probably right, and understandable, as a lot of what we today regard as national identity first surfaced in the romantic period.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Well, surprisingly Reicha has got one vote right now...

I figured you'd show up eventually 

I don't think of Reicha or Zelenka as particularly "Czech" in any way.

Maybe - both spent almost their whole careers outside of Bohemia. I just threw them into the mix because I thought they deserved attention.