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Asrael, etc.

This 2006 box set's full title is simply a list of the six pieces contained within: Asrael | A Summer's Tale | The Ripening | Epilogue | Fairy Tale | Praga - these being the major orchestral works of the Czech violinist and composer Josef Suk (1874-1935). The performances collected here date from between 1985-89, and feature the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, with Václav Neumann conducting 'Asrael', 'The Ripening' and 'Epilogue', and Libor Pešek at the podium for the other three works. On 'Epilogue', the Prague Philharmonic Choir and three solo singers can also be heard.

I'd first heard Suk's music on a Naxos CD I bought ca. 2001 on which 'A Summer's Tale' was the stand-out. I especially loved its second and third movements. Seeking to explore further, I acquired an album including both 'Asrael' and 'Fairy Tale', where it was the latter piece that particularly appealed to me. His later works like 'The Ripening' and 'Epilogue' proved harder to track down, but with the release of this box I found a way of obtaining them, and of replacing my other discs with some first-rate, authentically Czech interpretations.

On eventually hearing 'The Ripening' and 'Epilogue' I was disappointed: they strike me as being complex to the point of convolution, and I find them unrewarding listening. 'Praga', a somewhat earlier opus, was also new to me, and that I enjoyed rather better. It's the glorious melodies in 'Fairy Tale' and 'A Sumer's Tale' that, however, that I continue to find the most enchanting, and which I'm most likely to play when I reach for this box.

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