1 people agree with this review
　2009/08/31

Sir Charles is not only the finest conductor Australia has ever produced he is revered in Prague, Brno and around the world as the finest conductor of Czech music today.
While the orchestra is simply not as good as it was in the 50s and 60s due largely to the fact that Karel Ancerl was at the helm, they do know how to play Czech music and have a particular sound and colour in their tone as well as a unique way with the rhythms of their own music. Sir Charles last made recordings of the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba with the Vienna Philharmonic (Decca) and while beautifully played with weight and tonal splendour it just wasn’t the sound that Janacek conceived.
In these, probably Mackerras’ last recordings of this composer, he achieves exactly the right hard-edged sound (timpani with hard sticks) and rhythmic clarity that has marked his conducting of this composer for so long and if you have heard him conduct Janacek in the theatre you will know what I mean. No other composer sounds like this.
Janacek replaced the Jenufa Overture with a descriptive, short prelude with a xylophone rhythm evoking the turning of the mill-wheel in centre stage. This piece can now be heard as a dramatic tone poem in its own right.
As in all of these works Mackerras has restored Janacek’s original markings and instructions after years of publishing errors and in some cases editors softening and romanticising the original orchestration to fit there own concept of the music.
The Sarka Overture is a rarity, an early romantic opera which Mackerras has now recorded complete. It’s good to have this included.
Schluck and Jau is incidental music to a play by Hauptmann and was unfinished as the composer died so it is mature, late Janacek and very atmospheric and original with triumphant horns passages and complex rhythms. A real find.
The interludes that follow the Katya Kabanova Overture are restored by Mackerras in his performances of the opera and have been left out in the past.
If these performances of the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba do not displace Ancerl, recently restored on a Gold Edition series, they offer slightly better sound in spread and depth but certainly not as much clarity. The old Czech Philharmonic had a raw power and thrust that today’s orchestra doesn’t have but these are essential modern recordings of these works under the master himself and certainly have the edge on Jiri Belohlavec’s very well recorded and excellent Chandos recordings that I have long admired.
An absolute must-have for fans of this composer and conductor.

3 people agree with this review
　2009/08/31

The interesting work here, because it is seldom heard, is the delightful Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, written in 1925 when Janacek was 71. It has wonderful textures and rhythms with exuberance and energy and is given a superb performance here by Kubelik’s compatriot the great Czech pianist Rudolf Firkusny.
Kubelik was a great champion of his countrymen’s music and played it all over the world, including on his visits to Australia. He was a very musical interpreter, not interested in show but on purely musical values and was often accused of being a bit dull when compared to many more flashy and self-promoting Maestros.
Having said that I found these performances of the wonderful Sinfonietta and the suite from Taras Bulba to be among the most impressive and dynamic I know and I have some great performances of these including Karel Ancerl, Sir Charles Mackerras (4) and Jiri Belohlavek. These are all very idiomatic being with the Czech Philharmonic; the earlier Mackerras recordings were done in Vienna and London and a live one in Sydney released last year.
What Kubelik has done is transform the usually very Germanic sound of the Bavarian Radio Symphony into a Czech style with much crisper phrasing and dynamic tuttis. The usually woolly brass tone is brighter and more exciting and dynamic than one usually hears from German playing.
The Taras Bulba is terrific and builds to an impressive finale with great weight of tone and powerful timpani, even better than the recording he made with the Royal Philharmonic in the early sixties for HMV.
This is also a magnificent performance of the Sinfonietta with impeccable balances, so hard to achieve in the really noisy bits with twelve trumpets, huge brass and woodwind sections.
I think this is a terrific bargain despite it only being 61 minutes long but then look at the price you are paying for Eloquence and listen to the quality of the performances and the superbly re-mastered recordings and it’s a no-brainer.

2 people agree with this review
　2009/08/31

These recordings from 1954 (Dvorak) and 1955 recorded in the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna represent an important link in the Kubelik discography. I have to admit not knowing these performances at all and I thank Cyrus Meher-Homje from Universal for bringing them to my attention. I recently reviewed the later recording that Kubelik made of the Sinfonietta in Munich with his Bavarian Radio Orchestra recorded in 1971, which Eloquence released, and found it to be one of the best of all.
These pre-stereo recordings were made after his time in Chicago when he was making recordings with the Philharmonia in London and had a strong association with the Vienna Orchestra making many recordings with them.
This version of the Sinfonietta is quite riveting as Kubelik treats it with great urgency. Tempos are fast and the sound of the orchestra is at times quite raw, not inappropriately as the work was written for the Czech armed forces and the opening and closing fanfares are scored for twelve trumpets.
The Vienna orchestra is not the right orchestra for this music as I thought when Mackerras recorded it with them for Decca, they never sound Czech, however, this is a very exciting and urgent version of this very original work.

The glorious cello concerto is probably the greatest in the repertoire, although the Elgar comes close. Fournier recorded again in stereo a bit later and gives a powerful and impassioned performance with close support from Kubelik. Many of the big orchestral moments are not so clear in the older sound and once again the Vienna Philharmonic do not sound Czech at all, but they never did, or do today. You probably have a recording of it, but at the price, this is a good one to hear and have as an alternative.

It was Claudio Abbado who said this orchestra couldn’t play Tchaikovsky because their bowing arm was too long and the same thing applies to them playing Czech music. It hasn’t stopped them from recording a lot of Tchaikovsky under Maazel, Karajan and recently Gergiev. However, this is a very good and exciting Romeo and Juliet with plenty of fine string playing. It is not over-romanticised and that is a good thing.