Vítězslav Novák Pan

[Alan Howe]

Having found myself not enjoying Hausegger's Natursymphonie (apologies!), I thought I'd dig out some more late-romantic monsters. So here's one:

This is a five-movement symphonic poem originally written for piano in 1910 and later orchestrated. Does anyone know this life-affirming score?

[britishcomposer]

I am very fond of it but I wonder if this is the only commercial recording. Back in the 90s I recorded a live performance by the Prague RSO conducted by Ondrej Kukal. Unfortunately my recording device was very unstable at that time, nevertheless I found this performance much more idiomatic and passionate than the MP recording. Do you know if other versions exist? Chandos recorded the piano version with Margaret Fingerhut but I had hopes that they would add this to their growing Novak series, too. Didn't happen though.

[eschiss1]

don't know of any other commercial orchestral recordings and can't seem to find any (though there seem to be three or four commercially-released piano versions.)

[Alan Howe]

I know of no other recordings. In any case, the MP account is highly persuasive and well recorded - easily good enough to reveal the splendours of the writing.

[chill319]

I love this score, filled like so many Novak works with passions and tenderness. As you know, the piano version was quite well received but for some reason the sumptuous orchestration was not.

I'll mention two more delectable but lesser-known Novak works, even though they may stand slightly beyond the remit of this forum: the pair of pantomime-ballets Signora Giovanni and Nikotina, written in the mid and later 1920s -- outstanding works, each about as long as Pan, that capture Novak in very appealing form.

Novak's ability to create almost visual pictures of multiple characters pantomiming together is all the more remarkable for maintaining at the same time musical coherence and dramatically cogent  pacing. Signora Giovanni is the darker of the two works (ending quite darkly) with a musical palette clearly derived from the one in Pan but richer in 11th and 13th chords and in bitonality, rather like Bax or Szymanowski during the same period. In Novak's case dark but not in the least bit heavy (unlike, say, Bax 2). The companion ballet is more conservative tonally, set as much of it is in a monastery kitchen. Indeed, for stretches this work is less harmonically audacious than Pan. Where Novak really outdoes himself is in the orchestration, as fresh and youthful sounding as anything I know. Its many riches include a flute solo as exquisite as anything in Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale, or in Ravel. The end of Nikotina brings together themes from both ballets with mixtures of motivic development that in their unforced but complex interrelations put one in mind of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (as opposed to the type of contrapuntal apotheosis that Bruckner favored). Novak's facility at mixing motives contrapuntally is how he projects the pantomiming characters into music. The craft is ultimately post-Wagnerian, like Strauss at his best. Some accounts of later Novak glibly compare him to Strauss, but once one hears Novak's actual music it becomes clear that the influence of Strauss came during the first decade of the 20th century and that the later music is inimitable, a personal pursuit of premises earlier developed.


Come to think of it, I can't think of a ballet that I like more than these two -- at least after I got to know them through multiple listenings.

[C R Lim]

... another candidate?

[kolaboy]

I bought it when Records International put it in their catalog - way back when. It gets a listen every year or so, after which I usually wonder why I don't give it a spin more often...
So many unsungs, so little time...

[Alan Howe]

Perhaps someone would like to start a new thread on the Granados...?

[JP]

In fact, from what I heard, Novak's Pan was not the only piano work that the composer orchestrated. The Czech radio archives also safekeeps within its archived vaults a stirring performance of the orchestral version of Novak's Exotikon piano suite op.48, played by the Brno State Philharmonic under the baton of Frantisek Jilek, who also incidentally did a Czech radio broadcast rendition of Novak's orchestral Pan tone poem. The original tape reel of these performances are probably languishing somewhere in the radio station vault shelves. The orchestrated Exotikon is scored and stylised in a Ravelian-like coloristic fashion not unlike the latter's Mother Goose suite. Should any of the forum members be in possession of this rare gem, or be in touch with Mike Herman and his humongous treasure trove of rare commercially unavailable recordings, now's a good time as any to surface it on the music download section.

Having noted that Novak's Pan has not been reissued nor benefited from a new recording during its centennial compositional anniversary some 5 years ago, now's the perfect time to record and pair this work lasting some 55 mins or so with Jaroslav Kricka's 15 min long Post-Romantically luxuriant Russophile sounding Bluebird overture, a work dating from 1913 (its centenary likewise passed in silent obscurity) that I previously raised to the forum's attention some months back. And what better to couple these works in a sumptuously packed 2-CD recording than Joseph Marx's 75-min long magnum-opus to make up the second recorded disc. This is none other than the equally hedonistic nature-worshipping Eine Herbstsymphonie! Not to be outdone, this work uncannily bears a remarkably strong programmatic (autumnal evocations of nature) and harmonic affinity (late-romantic, chromatically rich impressionistic palette) with Novak's Pan and his subsequently composed Autumn Symphony. Coincidence one might ask?  Its more likely an indication that creative minds think alike. Proffering a bold symphonic repertoire tryptich the likes of a Novak-Kricka-Marx proposition will surely scare the budgetarily constrained wits off more adventurous inclined labels such as CPO, Dutton, Chandos, Naxos etc...

[Revilod]

A few years ago I wrote a review of the "Pan" disc for Amazon.co.uk. I wouldn't say it's Novak at his best but it's still a worthwhile piece.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pan-V-Novak/dp/B0000045WB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433919564&sr=8-1&keywords=novak+pan

I was surprised to get away with:

"The final movement is "Woman". To encapsulate such a complex subject in a mere 15 minutes of music is hardly possible, of course. Novak, however, does his best." !

[adriano]

Another fabulous and higly recommendable work by Novak is his 74-minutes' Cantata "The Storm". "Pan" and this piece are both masterworks! The 1978 Supraphon recording of "Boure" (The Sorm), conducted by Zdenek Kosler, is supreme; it has been remastered to CD some time ago.

[chill319]

I'll second your enthusiastic recommendation of the Kosler-led "Storm," hadrianus. Excellent performance, excellent engineering, fabulous score. I disagree, though, with the author of the annotation, who believes that Novak had nothing vital to say after 1910.

[eschiss1]

Me too; there's that absolutely wonderful WW2-era cello sonata just for starters. (My opinion of course, but I do recommend trying that passionate work, for awhile only available in an LP recording but now also performed on CD.)

[chill319]

The cello sonata is very near the top of my own post-1910 list, too, Eric.

[adriano]

Thanks, chill319 - I agree with you; I too, I was shocked to read this in the booklet notes of "The Storm". Just consider Novák's opera "The Lantern", written in 1919-22, which is so full of splendor and nocturnal magic.