Octo_Russ

Suk - Asrael Symphony [Belohlavek- Czech Philharmonic Orchestra]

In 1992 this recording appeared, alongside another recording by Pesek on the Virgin label, out of the blue we seemed to have gone from this Symphony sorely under represented on disc, to now spoilt for choice amongst two equally great recordings, at the time people raged what a great long lost work this was, and why hadn't it been 'discovered' sooner, as it should rightly be a well recorded work, on the strength of this, i bought this disc in 1993, it's a big work, lasting almost an hour, in five movements, it's certainly worth getting to know.

Jiri Belohlavek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1946, now 64, he has made many wonderful recordings for the Chandos label, Dvorak, Suk, Martinu, to name a few of the Composers he's recorded.

Suk's Asrael Symphony has an interesting compositional story, his Father in law and mentor, maybe even his hero Dvorak passed away, in his memory Suk wrote this Symphony, Asrael is the angel of death, that leads the newly deceased to the land of eternal bliss, it was planned as a five movement work, and initially it was to be a joyous creation and celebration of the life of Dvorak, however, after completing three movements, the same angel of death took Suk's wife also, and the last two movements were composed in her honour, and the Symphony now took a darker, more questioning spirit about life, now composed in two parts, the first part contains the first three movements played without a break, and dedicated to Dvorak, and the second part contains the last two movements dedicated to his wife.

However, on this recording it's the fifth and last movement that i'm really impressed and moved by, it has an optimistic, even an 'on to glory' type of feel to it, rather than dark and bleak, it has this wonderful optimistic silver lining to it, the whole Symphony has some lovely sonorities in it, clever and inspiring musical ideas,

Here's the start of the fifth movement, conducted by Walter Weller on YouTube.