Miloslav Kabelac(1908-79)

[Dundonnell]

Nice to see this thread is still alive after all this time

(Making a very rare reappearance here   But...who knows...I MAY return before too long )

[vandermolen]

Nice to see this thread is still alive after all this time

(Making a very rare reappearance here   But...who knows...I MAY return before too long )

Am delighted to see this welcome guest appearance Colin. It was you who alerted me to the greatness of 'Mystery of Time', which I had in my collection but had never properly appreciated before. It is a wonderfully powerful and, towards the end, moving work. 

[Dundonnell]

It is wonderful to hear that "Mystery of Time" is being performed live in Vienna later this month. Wish I could be there!

Rinaldo was so right in saying that, despite its age, the Ancerl recording is so intense, so marvellously idiomatic, so powerful, so unrestrained-in comparison with, at least, one more modern recording I have heard- that it is doubtful if it could be bettered.

[vandermolen]

It is wonderful to hear that "Mystery of Time" is being performed live in Vienna later this month. Wish I could be there!

Rinaldo was so right in saying that, despite its age, the Ancerl recording is so intense, so marvellously idiomatic, so powerful, so unrestrained-in comparison with, at least, one more modern recording I have heard- that it is doubtful if it could be bettered.

Totally agree.

[lescamil]

I'll just leave this here:

http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2266187

[Dundonnell]

Bless you, lescamil

I had never thought that I would live to actually see a performance of this work!

It is a difficult piece to bring off. Pacing the piece, building and maintaining the tension is all -important and Hrusa does a much better job of doing this than Vladimir Valek with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in a recording I have from 2008. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra is an excellent orchestra and they are playing music which, presumably, they were totally unfamiliar with. All in all, it is an excellent performance. No...not quite the equal of the historic Ancerl with the Czech Philharmonic from 1960 but, let's face it, that is probably an impossible ask. Ancerl was a great conductor and he had at his disposal an orchestra unrivalled in its time in Czech music.

The key moments for me are at around the 10-11 minutes into the recording where the horns, followed by the trumpets need to carve through the texture of the music in a way which really must make the listener's hair stand on end (yes, I know...hardly a very scientific way of expressing what I mean ). The Czech PO's brass have a "blaring quality" which achieves that end so successfully and in such a truly terrifying fashion. The Finnish brass do well but with not quite so dramatic an effect. Their woodwind are superb but, at times, the strings are not quite so successful in conveying the power of the music. Nicholas Kenyon once described an orchestra of students playing the Berlioz Requiem at the London Proms as playing "as if their very lives depended on it" and it is that sense of total and utter commitment which the piece needs. The Finns get very near....to be fair to them.

The closing pages of the piece also require very careful handling. After the huge climax at around 18 minutes in there is that wonderful, gradual winding-down but that needs to convey a sense of mysticism (in a way akin to the last movement of the Vaughan Williams 6th symphony) in which the inherent tension is not dissipated through too much relaxation, in which there is a sense of exhaustion after the shattering power of what has come before but no sense that the work is simply "petering out".

No doubt this is all hopelessly subjective and my incapacity to convey in words to describe exactly what I mean may well render it meaningless to others.

It is a very good performance and I am most deeply appreciative of the kindness in providing the link.

[Rinaldo]

I'll just leave this here: http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2266187

Must. Not. Click. Right. Away. Have. Work. To. Do.

(THANKS!!!)

No doubt this is all hopelessly subjective and my incapacity to convey in words to describe exactly what I mean may well render it meaningless to others.

Quite the contrary, especially your words about the trumpets carving through. Spot on!

[vandermolen]

The generation of Czech composers born between 1900 and 1914 included a number of interesting figures whose music was recorded on LP by labels like Supraphon and Panton during the 1960s to 1980s but have, sadly, seldom made it to cd.

One of the apparently most interesting is Miloslav Kabelac. Kabelac was a pupil of Alois Haba, the pioneer of the use and integration of microtones into modern music and later of 12-tone techniques. Kabelac combined elements of 12-tone composition with the influence of Gregorian chant and of folk music. He was an active and influential figure both at Prague Radio and as a teacher at Prague Conservatory(where he introduced many young Czech composers to the latest developments in Western avant-garde musical techniques) but was sidelined after the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Kabelac wrote a huge amount of work, orchestral, chamber, organ and choral. His eight symphonies were written for different combinations of instruments:as examples,  the Third is for organ, brass and timpani- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o00Rq2VvOUI; the Eighth for soprano, choir, percussion and organ.

I have the Symphony No.5 "Dramatic" for soprano and orchestra(1960) on cd but the only other piece I can claim to know well of this intriguing composer who, in my estimation deserves much more exposure and investigation, is his quite marvellous Passacaglia for large symphony orchestra "The Mystery of Time"(1953-57). This latter work is fortunate to be included on a Supraphon cd but can be heard here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxcD0mU9jo&feature=related

"The Mystery of Time" is one of my favourite 20th century compositions, never failing to thrill me as it grows from a sepulchral opening in gradually mounting intensity to a magnificent climax with Janacek-like fanfares underpinned by thunderous brass. I first heard the work on LP almost half a century ago and I still find it the epitome of the phrase 'awe-inspiring'

I'm sorry that Colin ('Dundonell') never posts here any more. He put me on to 'Mystery of Time' by Kabelac which I now consider a masterpiece of the 20th Century. It is, in some ways, an angry and relentless work but when it begins to lose momentum, towards the end, it demonstrates great compassion which I find very moving. It is a great example of a 'modernist' work with a compassionate soul. There only seems to be one recording and a very fine one but there should be more:
[asin]B00006I49K[/asin]

[Rinaldo]

I'm sorry that Colin ('Dundonell') never posts here any more. He put me on to 'Mystery of Time' by Kabelac which I now consider a masterpiece of the 20th Century. It is, in some ways, an angry and relentless work but when it begins to lose momentum, towards the end, it demonstrates great compassion which I find very moving. It is a great example of a 'modernist' work with a compassionate soul. There only seems to be one recording and a very fine one but there should be more:
[asin]B00006I49K[/asin]

I hope someone like Marko Ivanović might record it – or maybe he already did, during the symphonic cycle sessions for Editio Supraphon (still unreleased ). I hit Ivanović with an e-mail, will let you know if he responds.

[Rinaldo]

I hit Ivanović with an e-mail, will let you know if he responds.

Well, that was quick! The symphonic cycle should be out this September (no mention of Mystery, though).

[vandermolen]

Well, that was quick! The symphonic cycle should be out this September (no mention of Mystery, though).

Many thanks though - interesting news. Ancerl's performance of 'Mystery of Time' is great so I guess I should feel lucky that we have that one. Would be great to have a modern recording though.

[Rons_talking]

Not much of his music to sample on Spotify--the 4th, 5th, 8th, Do Not Retreat, Metamorhphoses...Piano Etudes and songs. Kabelac has passion and fearlessness, but I don't see myself being converted any time soon. But thanks for the insight!

[vandermolen]

Not much of his music to sample on Spotify--the 4th, 5th, 8th, Do Not Retreat, Metamorhphoses...Piano Etudes and songs. Kabelac has passion and fearlessness, but I don't see myself being converted any time soon. But thanks for the insight!

Have you tried 'Mystery of Time'?
It comes up on You Tube.

[Rinaldo]

Yup.

https://www.youtube.com/v/5kxcD0mU9jo

[vandermolen]

Yup.

https://www.youtube.com/v/5kxcD0mU9jo

Thanks for posting the link Rinaldo. 

[lescamil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgeYpx-azF0

The one I linked two years ago is also on YouTube.

[vandermolen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgeYpx-azF0

The one I linked two years ago is also on YouTube.

Fantastic! Wonderful to hear and see a live modern performance, and a very fine one at that. I am more and more convinced that this is one of the great musical masterpieces of the 20th Century. Thank you for reminding us of the link. 

[Scion7]

Sextet For Flute (Piccolo), Oboe (English Horn), 2 Clarinets (Saxophone And Bass Clarinet), French Horn, & Bassoon, Op.8

from a 1971 Supraphon LP liner notes:

The Sextet works with various modes in octave and fifth ambits. The Pastorale works on a mode built on the minor 2nd and 3rd intervals; the movement has 3 sections including a short reprise; the Scherzo is constructed in a mode in fifth ambit: its peculiarities include a modulation character dependent on a repitition of the fifth ambit, and the composer works with the series in the dimension of three ambits and with its segments in similar motion and contrary motion; the three-part 3rd movement - Andante melanconica - is based on segments of the chromatic scale; the middle-section is polyphonic.
The finale is in quasi-sonata form: it uses the material of an expansive interval series, and, in the development section, it features a folk-type melody instead of a subsidiary theme in the development section.

The four movements are on YT.

[Scion7]

1982 re-issue of the 1960 LP:

[vandermolen]

1982 re-issue of the 1960 LP:

I saw that too and what a great coupling, Martinu's 'Parables' (after St Exupery).