Helsinki Philharmonic performs Josef Suk Asrael Symphony - 11 Nov 2021

[JP]

Dear all, it may interest you to note that the Helsinki Philharmonic has provided a rarely glimpsed live concert performance video recording of Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony under the thoughtful direction of Leonard Slatkin. The concert was live streamed on the 11th of November and can be viewed for the time being at the orchestra's website and its official YouTube channel. Do catch this rather moving, well paced and expressive rendition before it's removed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY9TlP2BpHI  (now defunct and set to private)

https://areena.yle.fi/1-50996065 (still up & running for the moment)

Regards, JP

[Alan Howe]

Thanks!

Question: has the Asrael Symphony finally emerged from obscurity and become a repertoire piece?

[ewk]

Hm, I feel it is on the edge at the most, at least concerning live performances. I can only speak for Germany – here it gets an outing every once in a while (indeed by top orchestras), but not more than that.  Mostly due to Jakub Hrůša and Kirill Petrenko. It is surely still a venture to put it on a programme, as the general public does not know it (nor the composer I think) and you need to hope they come to the concert nonetheless. But that, of course, is true for many composers apart from the always-the-same core repertoire.

My feeling says it is one of those pieces conductors and orchestras know and appreciate as one of the seldomly-heard gems, but that you need to persuade your financial director for.  Maybe same category as Ilya Muromets (even more persuasion needed) or Stenhammar 2 (mostly due to Blomstedt, probably comparable level of persuasion?) or maybe the Nielsen symphonies (maybe a bit less persuasion needed)? I am, of course, not in the business myself, so it's all more of an educated guess from the perspective of a concert-goer and former amateur orchestra organizing committee member.

[Alan Howe]

That sounds about right to me (with regard to the Asrael Symphony).

[Ilja]

To be honest, it's been years since I've seen a performance of Muromets (although I haven't been systematically looking for it, being not the biggest fan of the piece); the Glière I do see quite often is the Harp Concerto, though.


Stenhammar seems on the up, however, and with a number of pieces (Symphony No. 2, Excelsior!, 2nd Piano Concerto) being programmed with some regularity. The same seems to apply to Suk: Bachtrack lists the Serenade, The Ripening, and the Scherzo Fantastique all being played by various orchestras, in addition to some chamber pieces.


By the way, Asrael is also played on May 20 and 21 of next year by the excellent Sinfónia de Galicia in A Coruña, led by Dima Slobodeniouk. And since I prefer Coruña in May to Helsinki in November, I may just take advantage of the opportunity.

[ewk]

You are right, Ilja, Muromets might be of the category "in some conductor's dreams" just as Asrael, but there is a big gap between this piece and Asrael concerning actual performances, indeed!

[JP]

In the same manner that it would be equally foolhardy from a commercially viable sponsorship standpoint to schedule a concert program that pairs the rarely played orchestrated version of Vitezslav Novak's Pan tone poem before the intermission followed by Joseph Marx's epic length Eine Herbstsymphonie (on a similar scale as the Ilya Muromets) in the second half performed by a sizeably augmented and significantly enlarged ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.   

[ewk]

I whitnessed the Herbstsymphonie in London a couple of years ago (we had a thread on that concert), and it was nearly such an adventurous programming, with Respighi's "Poema autumnale" in the first half. They had Julia Fischer perform the latter, of course.
But, alas, the concert hall was quite empty with ca. 700 of the 2000 available tickets sold as far as I remember...

Back to the Asrael recording this thread is about: There is a lot of Finnish talk in the interval and bevor the concert, as well as a Mozart Piano concerto, so anyone just interested in the Symphony can skip to 1:47:50, or follow this link: https://youtu.be/hY9TlP2BpHI?t=6466

Best wishes,
ewk

[eschiss1]

Not surprisingly, there was a performance of Ilya M back in 2018 with the American Symphony Orchestra; and at about the same time Gabriel Feltz and the Belgrade Philharmonic also performed it - but true, it doesn't seem to be a common thing, near as I can tell. The Suk symphony at least is getting another performance in May 2022 in La Coruña conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, perhaps others in the near future, not sure.

[terry martyn]

Many years ago, I acquired the Vaclav Talich  recording of this masterpiece. I am not sure that I would have described it as "unsung", but maybe the passage of time has told against it.

[JP]

« Reply #4 on: Friday 12 November 2021, 23:39 » By the way, Asrael is also played on May 20 and 21 of next year by the excellent Sinfónia de Galicia in A Coruña, led by Dima Slobodeniouk.

Good to hear that, I'm earnestly looking forward to listen to this upcoming performance too, a good thing to know that the Sinfónia de Galicia has a YouTube channel that archives many of its memorable concert performances. 

https://www.sinfonicadegalicia.com/concierto/2745/programa-21-temporada-21-22/   

https://www.youtube.com/user/SinfonicadeGalicia/videos

In addition, I have every confidence that Maestro Slobodeniouk possesses the ideal temperament to have a solid interpretive feel and dramatic flair for the Asrael having masterfully conducted a stirringly superlative, soulfully searching and deeply reflective rendition of Lizst's Dante Symphony back in Nov 2016, which of itself is not a commonly featured or regularly programmed symphonic piece in the concert hall repertory nowadays. Of noteworthy interest is the attention to detail that Slobodeniouk lavished upon the work's subtle musical phrasings and his acutely sensitized observance of those easily obscured and glossed over tonal inflections, not forgetting his insightful conveyance of the symphony's illuminatingly sonorous instrumental timbres portrayed by the hair raising hell fires of the infernally ravishing Inferno episode and the more introspectively subdued Purgatario movement. Such musically perceptive attributes are highly essential in fleshing out the embedded thematic motifs and melodic undertones of the Asrael Symphony which is oftentimes buried under the score's densely contrapuntal (verging on polytonality) and multiply overlaid layers of chromatically packed orchestration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW2YkLFuWlo

In fact these two central European works coincidentally happen to dwell on a recurring macabre subject that thematically revolves around the Grim Reaper and the murky netherworld. Viewed comparatively in relation to each other, they musically explore and programmatically exposit those fictionally derived literary aspects versus biographical depictions that figuratively portray angelic ministrations of Death something along the lines of R. Strauss' metaphysically transformative Death and Transfiguration tone poem. Both possess remarkably striking affinities in the way that they are scored replete with fearsome threnodies of thunderous timpani rolls, harsh hammer blows and dark brooding protracted musical passages that plummet the depths of sorrow, despair and unbearable suffering before concluding on a blissful or consolatory note in their respective closing passages.  As such, they would provide quite a rapturously unforgettable musical experience to all concert-goers alike if both works are performed in tandem alongside each other as companion pieces in a single back-to-back session whereby Lizst's Dante Symphony, which lasts for about 45-50 mins, is performed during the first half of the concert followed by Suk's Asrael after the intermission which plays for about just under an hour in duration.  Now that would serve as quite a splendid treat to adventurous concert attendees especially during the post-Covid mid-autumnal Halloween, All Saints & All Souls season of commemorative remembrance. Just an intriguing thought.

[Ilja]

Slobodeniouk and the Sinfónia de Galicia seem to be quite fond of this type of repertory; their performance of Scriabin's Third Symphony was among the best I've heard and should give everyone confidence that they'll be able to handle Asrael as well.

[JP]

Hi everyone. It might interest the discussion board members to note that there's now a chamber ensemble rendition of Suk's Asrael symphony that's waiting to be performed and recorded. It sounds distinctly like a computer synthesizer keyboard rendition of the symphony that's been instrumentally re-scored and transcribed in a miniaturised reductionist fashion just like Schoenberg's Chamber Symphonies which serves to accentuate the tragic pathos of the piece. Happy listening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX2EH4Ab8oY

Regards, JP.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks. It's not really very listenable (to my ears, anyway) - especially if one has known the piece, as I have, for nearly fifty years in its full orchestral garb, played by a real orchestra.

Might have been a useful academic exercise, I suppose.

[JP]

« Reply #4 on: Friday 12 November 2021, 23:39 » By the way, Asrael is also played on May 20 and 21 of next year by the excellent Sinfónia de Galicia in A Coruña, led by Dima Slobodeniouk.

It's now uploaded on their YouTube channel in a vivid concert recording that sonically captures the orchestra's vibrantly clear woodwind timbre and crisply defined brass intonations backed up by a rivetingly propulsive performance of the work which accentuates its underlying dramatic tension. 

< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnpYi5tvZuc >