Josef Richard Rozkošný (1833-1913)

[UnsungMasterpieces]

I came across this composers some months ago, and as I haven't found anything related to him or his music, I thought I'd start a topic on this composer.

I listened to the overture of his opera 'Svatojánské proudy' (which translates as St. John's Rapids, which was a 'stretch of flast flowing water' on the Moldau.)
Right at the start, it sounded a little bit familiar in some way, as if I was listening to Smetana. (My feeling was right. After looking them up, I found that they had the same teacher, Josef Proksch. Perhaps he made them do a 'musical exercise' to portray the river Moldau?)

Anyway, after a soft start, it became a bit more powerful, in which I possibly recognized a bit of Wagner. I think he had a personal musical language, but I'm not certain of that yet. Then halfway through it gradually went a bit more peacceful, and the themes you could hear in the beginning are repeated, with a fitting ending.

Perhaps anyone else knows more about him? (Besides the fact that he composed some more operas and a little bit of other orchestral and chamber music.)

[Alan Howe]

Sounds like a rip-off of Smetana to me. Highly attractive, though.

[Alan Howe]

There's an excerpt from the opera mentioned on this recital:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B006HICBWO/ref=dm_cd_album_lnk
Trouble is, I just couldn't listen repeatedly to the singer involved. It needs much better advocacy. Still, for the curious, perhaps - try track 7...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes - a very pleasant pastiche of Smetana. Would like to hear more to see if he wrote anything with greater individuality.

[Alan Howe]

Actually, there's an interesting issue of chronology here. Rozkošný's opera (according to Wikipedia) dates from 1871, whereas, for example, Smetana's Má vlast was composed between 1872 and 1879, with Vltava dating from 1874. So who ripped off whom, I wonder?

[UnsungMasterpieces]

That's an interesting fact indeed! And here's where it gets more interesting:

Rozkošný's opera was premiered on October 3, 1871. And there the work was conducted by none other than: Bedřich Smetana.

So perhaps this work was one of his inspirational sources in some way to compose 'Vltava'?

[matesic]

https://www.breitkopf.com/assets/pdf/EOS_20472_Pref.pdf

According to this authoritative Preface (to what I'm unsure) "There can be no question, however, of any musical influence (of Rozkošný's opera) on Smetana's work". So that's that, I guess - end of discussion.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The statement is made but with no convincing evidence to support it.

[Alan Howe]

Exactly. It's just an unsupported assertion. Bit like a Trump tweet...

[matesic]

I get the feeling the question of Smetana's "borrowing" from Rozkošný (who, ironically, was actually one of his strongest supporters) must have been considered before in Czech musical circles, but the authorities decided to squash it as something of an embarrassment. I can't believe that Milan Pospíšil (writer of the Preface, presumably to the score of Ma Vlast) failed to notice such obvious resemblances. Bare-faced denial of plain evidence isn't a new ploy!

[UnsungMasterpieces]

I agree, it's really interesting how he 'failed to notice' these resemblances. But perhaps he did.
But I also have the feeling that the fact that Smetana conducted the premiere of Rozkošný could've been influential on him.
I can imagine that conducting the premiere of an opera isn't something you would just forget.
So perhaps Rozkošný, in a certain sense, paved the way for Smetana to compose his masterpiece?

[Alan Howe]

That could very well have been the case.

[kolaboy]

Geez, is there no respite from politics?

[matesic]

For innocent amusement I recommend googling Rozkošný's Wikipedia entry in Czech and selecting "translate". For useful information, the entry in Czech on Svatojánské proudy contains the following, which requires some intelligent interpretation:

The biggest lifetime of work retained a prelude Midsummer streams that used to be played in concert [13] a few times and recorded. Recalls some passages from Smetana's Vltava and even some recent work [15] deem it possible that she inspired Smetana. While the embodiment of the Vltava river and catch firefly music streams in Rozkošného Smetana's opera might be some general inspiration, original version of the opera in 1871 did not contain any overture, which some reviewers even surprise criticized [16] . It was completed much later for new production in 1880, a few years after the song Smetana (1874), and the influence is therefore reversed.

So not a repeat of the Mahler/Rott controversy!

[Mark Thomas]

What a satisfying reversal!