Vaclav Dobias Symphony No.2

[Alan Howe]

I thought it might be worth starting a thread on Dobias' splendid Symphony No.2 of 1956-7. This is an epic, four-movement piece lasting 51 minutes written in an accessible modern style in clear line of descent to my ears from Suk's Asrael Symphony. It's available on a Supraphon CD with the magnificent Czech Philharmonic conducted by Karel Ancerl....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Karel-Ancerl-Edition-Vol-40-Burghhauser/dp/B00079RNLS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332848319&sr=8-2

[Mark Thomas]

Sounds so magnificent, Alan, that I'm downloading the tracks now. Thanks.

[Alan Howe]

I'm going to state now that I believe this to be a blazing masterpiece of the first order. Where has it been hiding?

[petershott@btinternet.com]

With respect, Alan, Dobias hasn't been hiding. It's rather the case that you haven't found him!

Supraphon released it again a few years ago as one of the final volumes in the Ancerl 'Gold Edition', and I believe the recording itself was made in 1960. I was still at school then, so it took me a few years to catch up with Dobias.

[Dundonnell]

There are just so many very fine Czech composers who were active in the decades after the Second World War. Many of them were extensively recorded in the 1950s-70s by Supraphon and Panton on LP. Sadly, so few of these recordings have made it to cd. Supraphon must be sitting on a treasure-trove of master tapes yet keep on churning out more Smetana and Dvorak; great composers both, of course, but does the world really need more

I refer back to this thread:

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,2386.msg28835.html#msg28835

If you think Dobias is good imagine what other marvellous undiscovered Czech symphonies probably exist.

[Mark Thomas]

Supraphon must be sitting on a treasure-trove of master tapes yet keep on churning out more Smetana and Dvorak; great composers both, of course, but does the world really need more

The question is rhetorical, of course, but no doubt they've found that they'll get several times more the sales for yet another Dvorak symphony CD than they would of a Dobias or another unsung. They're a business which unlike cpo, Hyperion or Chandos, will have invested nothing in building up its own captive market amongst the likes of us. Now, like many of the former major labels. it mainly just exploits its back catalogue and can get a faster and more predictable buck by reissuing classic performances of standard repertoire.

[saxtromba]

Glad to see this great piece getting some acknowledgement.  Some years ago I had the good fortune to pick up  bunch of Supraphon LPs featuring 'iron curtain' composers, discovering in the process an impressive number of really good works.  Even in that company, though, this was one of the standouts.  I especially like the second movement, which is an absolutely thrilling mix of high energy virtuosity and downright creepy orchestration.  It is a sad comment on the market-driven musical world of North America that pieces like this stand virtually no chance of ever being performed, so that we must rely on a single fifty-plus year old recording....

[Alan Howe]

Mind you, it's a superb 50 year-old recording - in both performance and sound.

[Dundonnell]

Ancerl was a superb conductor

[black]

There is a podcast of Dobias' 2nd Symphony available on the Spanish National Radio Radio Clasica in the weekly programm Los Raros, which, by the way,  is a very interesting programm.
See here

[Latvian]

Ancerl was a superb conductor

Indeed! Tremendously underrated outside his homeland.

[Sydney Grew]

There is a podcast of Dobias' 2nd Symphony available on the Spanish National Radio Radio Clasica in the weekly programm Los Raros, which, by the way,  is a very interesting programm.
See here

Thank you so very much for that link; I've been wanting for years to hear that symphony in its entirety. And there is indeed a good deal more that is rare and interesting there!

[erato]

The Stalingrad Cantata is on a new 2 CD Supraphon reissue with performances by Kubelik. Any body heard it?

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Yes, but in order to acquire the newly reissued fairly ancient recording of Stalingrad a frustrated collector ALSO has to buy yet more old recordings of Dvorak Symphony 8 AND the Piano Concerto AND Shostakovich Symphony 9 AND Martinu Symphony 4 AND finally on top of that formidable list Martinu's Memorial to Lidice.

We are talking here of Supraphon's forthcoming release of a 2 CD set of Kubelik recordings coming from the 1940s and 1950s.

I would very much like to hear Dobias' Stalingrad work (which I guess is of fairly short duration), but I quite refuse to buy all those (thankfully) quite standard and mainstream works each of which I've already got 6-7 modern and recent recordings.

I take into account Mark's post above about the 'economics' of recording companies, and specifically his allegation that record companies like Supraphon are now forced into a role of turning a quick buck by endlessly recycling material from their vaults.

I'm not convinced by Mark's point, and especially not in this case. Maybe there is some forlorn creature somewhere in the world who has embarked on a PhD thesis upon the precise nature of Kubelik's accounts of all these works in Prague in what was then an enormously different world. Other than such a creature (who is probably entirely fictitious anyway) who in their right mind would want to buy this 2 CD set? True, it is to be released at near bargain price - but for all the works above there already exist a range of utterly excellent modern stereo recordings already at bargain price.

Alas, I myself am becoming a forlorn creature. For I suspect that when this newly recycled 'product' does not sell sufficient quantities and becomes fodder for bargain bins, then the company accountants at Supraphon will decide that this sort of thing doesn't succeed and that maybe they ought to try their luck with Dvorak songs (made 'relevant' by revision of song texts to reflect contemporary trends and performed by Madonna and jazz combo group). Gawd help us.

If a record company is a business enterprise (which with an eye to the real world I suppose it has to be) then part of its job is to create or expand a market for its products. That is exactly what businesses dealing with, e.g. computer peripherals, motor cars, medical equipment, hats, books, foods and all our other 'stuff' set out to do.

In the recording world we hugely need good recordings of composers like Dobias. Given my understanding that Dobias is performed at least occasionally in what was his own country it is outrageously scandalous that the ONLY available recording of any of his works (apart from the present one) is a very good but 50 year old recording of the 2nd Symphony. Exactly the same point holds for a whole range of 20th century Czech composers. If Supraphon summoned up a bit of imaginative vision they would be attempting to enhance and expand the market in which those with musical interests across the globe would be wanting to investigate the work of these composers and acquire recordings of them to place alongside their beloved recordings of Dvorak. Humph, run out of wind!

[Dundonnell]

Hear, Hear