Novák: Piano Concerto & Toman and the Wood Nymph
Jan Bartoš, piano
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra; Jakub Hrůša, conductor
The greatest Czech composers – Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, Suk, Martinů … And anyone else? Yes, Vítězslav Novák! Who was he? A pupil of Dvořák’s, later on one of the most distinguished music creators and teachers on the domestic scene. A Post-Romantic and the first of the generation of Modernists profoundly inspired by Moravian folk music. Jakub Hrůša, a globally renowned contemporary conductor, invites us to rediscover Novák’s music: “We are obliged to perform it. His music is so profound and far-reaching that we simply cannot ignore it and let it gather dust in archives and remain buried in music history textbooks.”
– 150th anniversary of Novák’s birth
– First studio recording of the Piano Concerto, a remarkable early work by the 25-year-old Novák
– The tone poem Toman and the Wood Nymph may be deemed the most ambitious of Novák’s symphonic works.
– As the composer himself put it, he strove to express an “uncontrollable torrent of wild passion”, referring to the piece as an “orgy of sound” and the ballad as a “depiction of woman’s demonic power over man”
Tracklisting
1. No. 1, Allegro energico
2. No. 2, Andante con sentimento
3. No. 3, Allegro giusto
At Dusk, Op. 13
4. No. 1, Andante rubato
5. No. 2, Alla Ballata
6. No. 3, Serenade No. 1 Andante con moto
7. No. 4, Serenade No. 2 Andante grazioso
8. Toman and the Wood Nymph, Op. 40 “symphonic poem after a Bohemian legend for large orchestra”
Listen on Spotify
