Josef Suk: Asrael Sinfonie (Jakub Hrusa) (CD, Br-Klassik)

Josef Suk was probably the one in the generation of Czech composers after Antonín Dvo ák who stylistically came the furthest way, and next to Leo Janá ek he was certainly the one who is most likely to claim world renown, according to the musicologist Ludwig Finscher in his lexicon article in Die Musik in Past and present, the standard work of music history par excellence. The fact that the music of Suks, one of the most important symphonic orchestras in Bohemia, is rarely present in Western European concert halls, should change as quickly as possible. With this recording of his second symphony, nicknamed Asrael, BR KLASSIK makes a strong plea for the impressively convincing music of the violinist and composer. Josef Suk, initially a violinist, became a master student of the already world-famous Dvo ák in 1891, was regularly invited to his country house and fell in love with his teacher’s daughter, with whom he married. The Asrael Symphony was written after Dvo ák’s death; the death of his own wife gave it a new twist (the work is dedicated to both). The subtitle refers to the angel of death in Islamic-Persian mythology: Asrael is a mysterious companion of the soul from this world to the next. Suk developed his own musical language, in which the solo violin is often integrated (here in the calm middle section of the Andante): the violin was his instrument; until 1933 he played on her in the Bohemian String Quartet.