Libor Novacek.
Not too long back I did a post on pianist Libor
Novacek's Liszt album, giving some of my thoughts
on the the work and the performance. Well a few
days later I got a comment on the post from Jana
at Czech Koncerts thanking me for the review and
wondering if I would like to get a complimentary
copy of Novacek's recital from the 2009 Prague
Festival. Well I thanked her, and of course gladly
accepted the offer.
It took a while to get here. But get here it did,
last Friday, bearing some very attractive stamps
from the Czech Republic. Since then I have given
the album a few good listens. So I thought that I
might put down some brief thoughts on the album
and the performance.
The recital begins with Haydn's Piano Sonata in F
major, H. 16 no. 23. I'm very picky with Haydn. But
this was a very good performance. I particularly
liked Libor's performance of the Adagio. Once again
Novacek's tendency to sit on a note — not beyond
the note value but neither being in a rush to get
to the next chord or phrase — brought a subtle
intelligence to the music, in the process making it
more poetic.
The central performance on the disk is a selection
of 9 pieces from Debussy's Preludes: Book I. I have
to confess, I am not a big fan of Debussy, at least
not in the normal way that I tend to latch on to
composers. I mainly know him through his orchestral
works, most of which I don't like, and his excellent
opera. And so I don't know the Preludes. But no work
exists in a vacuum. When a composer sets pen to paper
there are always works that came before it; and, if
that work is of a prior era, works that come after
it. Listening to this work I immediately found myself
making associations with Liszt in terms of various
sonorities to be found and similar sounding keyboard
strokes. Debussy might have considered himself to be
a revolutionary. But while it might be possible to move
forward and escape the present, it is never possible
to escape the past. To my ear the shadows of Liszt and
Schumman loom large here. As for Novacek's performance,
it is a much more aggressive interpretation than the
ones I am used to. Which, considering that so many
performances of Debussy seem to have been recorded
with the specific intention of putting me to sleep,
Novaceks's more forceful reading is a good thing.
The first piece of the set, "Mists", grabbed me due to
the fact that I have been tossing around a short story
inspired by Paganini's 6th caprice — another very fog-
like piece. Novacek brought out the sad poetry of "Dead
Leaves" very nicely. It reminded me of a photo that I took
not too long back. In "Undine" Novacek somehow worked
the notes in a way that seems to bring forth a sense of
interaction between the sprites. "Undine" is at least
similar to Ravel's "Ondine," composed in 1908 — just a
few years prior to Debussy's Book 2. I suppose there are
only a limited number of ways that one can portray water
fairies on a keyboard. The set concludes with a grand
performance of "Fireworks."
For me the highlight of this performance was Bohuslav
Martinu's Three Czech Dances. I have a certain history
with Martinu. Decades ago, back when I started listening
to music, Martinu was along with Bartok the first of the
20th century composers to catch my interest. My local
library didn't have many recordings; nevertheless I
listened to them quite a bit over a period of months
— racking up some pretty good library overdue fees in
the process. After so many years titles have gone, the
only remains being this or that piece of melody. But
listening to this recording has sent me scampering back
to find them. Each of the Czech Dances is right at 3
minutes long. I really loved the second piece, "Dupak."
And the last of the three, "Polka," is an exciting piece
that would make an excellent encore.
Incidentally, when I went to the list of Martinu's
compositions on Wikipedia I noticed that the Dances were
not listed under works for solo piano. So I corrected
that deficiency.
The final work is the Fire Dance by Manuel de Falla. I
really don't care for this piece in the orchestral version.
But like many of Liszt's orchestra works this seems to fare
much better on piano. Novacek plays it with a nice balance
of bohemianism and tight control.
I really would like to thank both Libor and Jana for
sending me this disk. I imagine that over the next months
that it will be in heavy rotation on my turntable. Or
rather my CD player. Or my Blackberry.
Ah, links. You can order Libor's Prague Festival recording
by sending an email. There are also a number of MP3 downloads
available — including, speaking of mists — Janecek's In the Mists.
Originally posted by musickna:
I was thinking the same thing, and well-deserved, I might add.Reviews of classical works–music, paintings, sculpture, etc.–usually go right over my head. I either don't understand what in the world they're talking about, or they're so boring, I can't get through them, or don't bother even trying.But I understood every word, and your reviews always inspire me to want to listen to these works.Well done, Edward.:heart:
Excellent and thorough review there. How nice of Czech Koncerts to send you a disk to review. I think this means you a pro, Ed!:)
Originally posted by musickna:
😆 More like a caddy for the pro. :pBut thanks for the compliment, it is appreciated.
@ Star. Thank you too so much, and it is appreciated. This wasn't one of those posts that I could just whip off. It took me 2 days to collect everything and get it the way I wanted it. And if I contibuted any brain food to you, then that of course would be a good thing. So much of the time I do these kinds of posts primarily for myself, for whatever strange reasons, just the writings on the wall. But when someone reads the writing on the wall and it gives them information, or perhaps something otherwise satisfying, well of course that's a best feeling. BTW you won't believe what I found on Valentina. It's just amazing, and I am so excited. But I will probably wait to post that will the end of the week or next weekend. :heart:
Two years ago – maybe a bit more – someone from one travel agency contacted me and said a lot of nice words about me blogging about Belgrade and Serbia. She also said she will put a link to my blog on some other websites so people could read more about Serbia and – hopefully – decide to travel over here.It was nice from her, but they didn`t offer me trip to some other European city. Or anything :irked:Maybe I will have to have word with them :irked:Nice that someone recognised your talent for music, even in indirect manner :yes:
Originally posted by gdare:
Thanks for the compliment. :up:Well I would send you something. But I can't figure out the damn FedEx paperwork. :p In any case you never can tell what may pop up in the future. Perhaps a job opportunity with the Serbian chamber of commerce or whatever they have over there. In any case you run a great blog and I think I can speak for everybody that we are glad to read your posts and, more particularly, to know you as a friend. Not exactly a free trip to Berlin or whatever, but I'm just sayin'…
Maybe Libor would be willing to put a ronin like yourself up at his place for a few days in Prague. :p I looked it up and it's about a 550 mile bus trip.
I was in Prague in 1990. Well, it would be interesting to see how much it changed since then :up:
Thanks :happy:
Originally posted by edwardpiercy:
Ditto.:smile:
Classical music terms are mostly over my head, but I appreciate listening to it from time to time. While I don't know much about classical music, I DO know that I prefer piano over orchestral pieces. I have always loved piano and always will. And for some strange reason, I love harpsichord. I had some harpsichord pieces saved in my music folder once upon a time, but guess they got wiped out in some re-install or other.And I always appreciate someone else's knowledge. I do believe you can be classed as expert or professional.
Do they have paid critic jobs for classical music?
Jana writes:Dear Edward.We are very glad about your Prague Spring Festival Live recording review. We admire your sense for music profundity discovering. Such deep and very clear conviction could be found very rare by professional and trained reviewers. Best wishes from PragueJana
Originally posted by anonymous:
Jana it was my pleasure. And I'm looking forward to many new Libor albums to listen to and perhaps talk about here. 😀
Originally posted by qlue:
:doh: Jeez, that's all it was? I always assumed that they were pre-formatted — what was it, 9880 standards or something like that? It's been a long time. I will try it!Thanks! :up:
Originally posted by L2D2:
Linda I have a whole bunch of harpsichord music I can send you — if I ever figure out how to burn one of CDs. I bought some CD-RW disks last year and tried to burn one, but the thing just kept coming back saying media not found or some bullshit like that. If I can figure it out…would be more than happy to. And thanks for the praise — 😀
Those cd-rw disks have to be 'formatted' before burning something to them. :sherlock:.I usually format them from the command line in Linux. :left:.Any good cd burning software should have the option to format a re-writable disk. :up:.
Originally posted by L2D2:
Yes, they do. I don't have the credentials to do that, thought. I'm anthropology, not musicology.
Jana writes:Dear Edward.It would be nice to review Libor´s My First Recital http://www.answers.com/topic/my-first-recital when he was 14. But not sure if available.Jana
Libor's First Recital.I did follow the link for the album on that site but it was a dead link. I'll search around and see what I can find.Libor looks pretty young at that recital! Age 14 you say? That kind of thing always amazes me. 😀
Anonymous writes:Perhaps herehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000027TCP/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&condition=allor we will look in our archiveJana
Originally posted by edwardpiercy:
Could have fooled me! And I'd love to have a CD if you ever learn how to do it. Having the correct burning software is the main requirement, plus, of course, a good CD-RW orm CD-R drive.
I've never had to format a CD or DVD that I've burned, Edward. Or if I did, I didn't know I was formatting it. The burner did it automatically after I listed what I wanted burned. Maybe it DID format the disc, but if so, I didn't know it. I just click on whatever it tells me to and it does it's thing and when finished–voila! a new music CD. I upload to my pc from the CD and place in my music folder. Then I burn it to disc.
It's only rewritable dvd's and cd's that need formatting. :up:.But some software might format automatically as well. :sherlock:.
Originally posted by L2D2:
If I can get it going Linda, I will do that. Probably won't be able to get around to it for a few months though — to much on the plate.@ Qlue.Thanks for the clarification. :up:
I think my software must do it automatically. Now what could be more important than burning a CD for me? :p
Anonymous writes:Launch of YouTube chanel http://www.youtube.com/NovacekPianistLibor´s live and studio recordings spanning his career since 1994.113 recordings available to listen to. Include also My First RecitalBest wishes from PragueJana
Thanks, Jana. I will check that out immediately.And for any of my readers — check it out!And for your convenience here's the hot link:Libor Novacek's Channel on youTube.