Great Conductors • Talich ADD 8.111045

DVORˇ ÁK Symphony No. 7 Symphony No. 8

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Václav Talich

(Recorded 1935 and 1938) Great Conductors: Václav Talich Dvorˇák: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8

For almost forty years the name of Václav Talich was deal (1925-27) and he gave the London première of synonymous with the great orchestra he conducted, the Holst’s Egdon Heath in 1928. He also headed the Czech Philharmonic. Their symbiotic relationship had Konsertföreningen Orchestra in Stockholm (1927-34); to survive war and political interference but gave rise to in fact he gave 254 concerts in Sweden, leading to a some of the finest recordings in the history of the breakdown in his health. He recovered and from 1935 gramophone. Born in Kromeˇrˇízˇ, Moravia, on 28th May was in charge of the National Theatre in , in 1883, Talich had the classic Czech musical background: addition to his post with the Czech Philharmonic, but his father was a ‘cantor’ who started him on the violin at began to delegate some of the touring work with the five. At the age of eight, he heard Dvorˇák perform the orchestra to the younger Rafael Kubelík and George Dumky Trio with Ferdinand Lachner and HanusˇWihan. Szell. His violin tutors at the Prague Conservatory (1897- When was occupied by the 1903) were the best, Jan Marˇák and Otakar Sˇevcˇík. He Germans, Talich was placed in an impossible position. met his hero Dvorˇák who, ever thrifty, advised Talich to Although he had given up the Czech Philharmonic in smoke cheroots rather than cigars to conserve his 1941, Josef Goebbels made him ‘an offer he couldn’t money. In Berlin he played under Arthur Nikisch and refuse’, ordering him to tour Germany with the was inspired to conduct but suffered the first of many orchestra. Talich insisted on taking Smetana’s health crises. He worked in Odessa, Tbilisi, Prague, nationalistic suite Má Vlast, banned by the German Ljubljana and Pilsen as both orchestral and opera authorities in Czechoslovakia, and the visit was so conductor, taking a year off in 1910 to study in Leipzig successful that this music, almost sacred to Czechs, was (with Reger, Sitt and Nikisch) as well as Milan. He first again permitted in Prague. Even so, in 1945 Talich was conducted the Czech Philharmonic in 1917. Wherever accused of collaboration. He walked thirty kilometres in he was, he usually organized a string quartet – he said twelve hours from his home in Beroun to Prague, in the he learnt more from rehearsing as guest viola with the hope of conducting Smetana’s Libusˇe to mark the end legendary than from any other of the war, only to be barred from his own opera house. activity. He became friendly with the ensemble’s His chief accuser, the critic Zdeneˇk Nejedly´, hated second violinist, the , and was Talich because he felt that the Dvorˇák faction in Czech preparing the Czech Philharmonic for the première of music had unfairly supplanted the Smetana faction. Suk’s symphonic poem Ripening in 1918 when the Although Talich was a magnificent conductor of manager burst in to say that the Czechs had now Smetana’s music, including the operas, he was achieved their dream of a republic, named identified with the ‘Dvorˇák wing’ because of his Czechoslovakia. ‘That’s all very well,’ Talich typically closeness to Suk and Viteˇzslav Novák. He was absolved replied, ‘but we have to rehearse.’ By 1919 he was chief of all charges and returned to the National Theatre, also conductor but the orchestra, founded in 1896 by Dvorˇák making his last foreign trip, to Stockholm, in 1946; but and conducted in its early years by his pupil Oskar he was still prevented from working with the Czech Nedbal, was not in the best of order. Talich built it up Philharmonic, so formed his own Czech Chamber with endless rehearsing and by 1922 was confident Orchestra. When the Communist takeover came in enough to take the orchestra on a tour of Italy. He loved 1948, he was accused yet again and found that his Britain, which he first visited in 1923 as a guest enemy Nejedly´ had even more political power than conductor: he conducted the Scottish Orchestra a good before. He was dismissed from the National Theatre,

8.111045 2 had to disband his chamber orchestra and, like Nedbal introduction. Critics of a pedantic persuasion have in the 1920s, was exiled to Bratislava, where he built up questioned this practice but it may well stem from the Slovak Philharmonic (1949-52). Meanwhile the Dvorˇák and Nedbal – and the most important point is Communist government in Prague, though making it that it works. In Talich’s hands the tempo changes difficult for him to conduct the Czech Philharmonic in become organic and inevitable and it is astonishing to public, allowed him to record with the orchestra, as he think that he was having to stop the orchestra every five was the only conductor in the country with an minutes. (Editing was impossible in 78rpm days and international reputation (Kubelík had fled in 1948). By each five-minute side had to be repeated until the the mid-1950s the pressure was off Talich but he was a engineers were satisfied that they had two ‘takes’ good broken man. He last conducted the Czech Philharmonic enough to issue – experience had proved that it was in concert in 1954 and in the studio the following year. necessary to have a spare copy of every side.) This He died at Beroun on 16th March 1961. wonderful performance of the G major Symphony is Talich has sometimes thoughtlessly been compared doubly important because Talich’s 1951 remake is with Wilhelm Furtwängler but he was closer to Arturo disappointing by comparison: every rethought tempo Toscanini in his technical control, uncanny rhythmic goes the wrong way, the first movement is impatient sense, subtle flexibility, willingness to rethink and the finale is indulgent, a rare fault with Talich. interpretations and humility towards the music – in In 1938, just after the Munich betrayal, conductor retirement he was still studying Dvorˇák’s ‘New World’ and orchestra were back at Abbey Road to record supple Symphony, saying: ‘I would conduct it very plainly accounts of Dvorˇák’s Sixth and Seventh Symphonies now, without all the Romantic silt.’ The listener will and a dewy-fresh, transparent version of Suk’s never feel with Talich that a giant ego is being placed Serenade. Although Stanislav Novák did not go on this between him and the composer. Moreover, like tour, the orchestra was led by another great violinist, Toscanini, Talich had the inner power to thrust a Alexander Plocek. Talich left the public concerts to musical point home. Fortunately he left a number of Kubelík but took charge of most of the recordings. The recordings, even though there are gaping gaps in his Dvorˇák D minor Symphony, heard on this disc, would discography – virtually no Beethoven, no Haydn, no be important even if it were not such a great Schubert, no Martinu°, almost no opera. Talich made his performance, as Talich never had the opportunity to début recording for HMV in Prague in 1929, a complete record the work again. This symphony has always been set of Má Vlast with the Czech Philharmonic. In 1935 popular in England, as it was written in 1884-85 for the he brought the orchestra to London, where they gave Philharmonic Society and was given its première in concerts and spent several days at the studios in Abbey London under Dvorˇák’s own direction on 22nd April Road, making legendary Dvorˇák recordings: an 1885; but non-Czech conductors have often made it exciting Carnival Overture, an exhilarating set of sound like Brahms. Not the least of Talich’s Slavonic Dances and the performance of the Eighth achievements is that he renders every bar as the purest Symphony that is reproduced here. It is a heartfelt Dvorˇák. His interpretation is a virtually ideal amalgam interpretation of Dvorˇák’s most characteristic of lyricism and strength and he is given whole-hearted symphony, which seems to put one directly in touch support by his magnificent players. The natural with the composer. The leader Stanislav Novák’s violin portamento of the strings here is exactly what Dvorˇák solos are exquisite, the pacing of each movement is would have expected to hear, and the entire orchestra is flawless and the strings sliding up and down in the a credit to its conductor’s painstaking training. Film of Scherzo are irresistible. Talich shapes the work in the Talich in action shows that he used sparing gestures but traditional manner, making the opening bars into a slow had an expressive left hand and a wonderful way of

3 8.111045 caressing not just the main melody but a counter- short duration, it produced results of the highest quality. melody too. The Czech Philharmonic has played these two Václav Talich was due to visit London again in symphonies under many other conductors but never 1939 with his National Theatre company but it was not quite as convincingly as on these recordings. to be. Although his interaction with the magnificent recording team built up by HMV at Abbey Road was of Tully Potter

Producer’s Note

The symphonies were transferred from pre-war U.S. Victor pressings, the Seventh from a “Gold” label copy and the Eighth from a Red Seal Scroll edition, both being the most quiet form of shellac on which these albums were issued.

Mark Obert-Thorn

Great Conductors: Václav Talich Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70 36:48 1 Allegro maestoso 10:32 2 Poco adagio 10:06 3 Scherzo: Vivace 7:33 4 Finale: Allegro 8:37 Recorded 23rd November, 1938 at EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London Matrices: 2EA 7160-1, 7161-1, 7162-1, 7163-1, 7164-2, 7165-1, 7166-1, 7167-1, 7168-1 and 7169-1 First issued as HMV DB 3685 through 3689

Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 36:18 5 Allegro con brio 9:57 6 Adagio 10:20 7 Allegretto grazioso 6:52 8 Allegro ma non troppo 9:09 Recorded 23rd and 28th November, 1935 at EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London Matrices: 2EA 2808-2, 2809-1, 2810-1, 2811-1, 2812-1, 2813-1, 2814-1, 2815-1A, 2816-1 and 2817-1 First issued as HMV DB 2691 through 2695

8.111045 4 NAXOS Historical 8.111045 Antonín ADD ˇ DVORÁK Playing ൿ DISC PROHIBITED. BROADCASTING AND COPYING OF THIS COMPACT TRANSLATIONS RESERVED. UNAUTHORISED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, RIGHTS IN THIS SOUND RECORDING, ARTWORK, TEXTS AND ALL Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

8.111045 Time &

Ꭿ Václav Talich (1883-1961) 73:06 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd.

Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70 36:48 For almost forty years the name 1 Allegro maestoso 10:32 of Václav Talich was synonymous 2 with the great orchestra Poco adagio 10:06 DVOR he conducted, the Czech 3 Scherzo: Vivace 7:33 Philharmonic. His conducting 4 Finale: Allegro 8:37

embodied unerring technical ˇ

Recorded 23rd November, 1938 ÁK: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 control, an uncanny rhythmic in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London sense and subtle flexibility, allied with a willingness to rethink Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 36:18 interpretations and humility 5 Allegro con brio 9:57 towards the music. His legendary 6 Adagio 10:20 1930s Abbey Road Dvorˇák 7 Allegretto grazioso 6:52 recordings include a heartfelt

ÁK: Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 8 Allegro ma non troppo 9:09 Symphony No. 8, with flawless ˇ Recorded 23rd and 28th November, 1935 pacing of each movement and, in in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London its ideal amalgam of lyricism and

DVOR strength, one of the greatest recordings ever of Symphony MADE IN No. 7. THE EU Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn 8.111045 www.naxos.com

Cover Photo: Václav Talich (Tully Potter Collection) NAXOS HistoricalNAXOS