I heard Anton Dvorak’s Slavonic
Dance, op.72, no.1 on Classic FM the other day. It brought back memories of
the first time I heard these pieces on record. In the early 1970s, I invested a
lot of my weekly pay packet in Decca Eclipse records. For the uninitiated,
these were re-releases of Decca’s back catalogue, remastered to have ‘pseudo-stereo.’
This was an electronic reprocessed sound created from the original mono
recording. Its integrity has been debated.
For me, one attraction of these
albums was the typically (but see below!) wonderful photographs of the British
Landscape by courtesy of the National Trust. So, I invested £0.99p in Raphael
Kubelik’s 1955 recording of the Slavonic Dances where he conducts the great
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. (ECS 708)
There are 16 Slavonic Dances
published in two volumes, op.46 and op.72. They were composed in 1878 and 1886.
These Dances were originally written for four hand piano duet. Dvorak’s then publisher,
Simrock, had suggested to him that he emulate Brahms’s Hungarian Dances,
with a series of his own. These were the first pieces that brought huge popularity
to the composer-both at home and abroad. Simrock further asked that they be
orchestrated. In 1886, by popular demand, Dvorak produced a second series. Musically, the first set, op.46 is Czech in
character, and includes dances from Bohemia such as the ‘Furiant’ and the ‘Polka’.
For the second group, op.72, Dvorak widened his geographical horizons and
included a thoughtful Ukrainian ‘Dumka’ and a Polish ‘Mazurka’. Dvorak did not
use pre-existing folk-tunes but absorbed their characteristic rhythmic and
melodic features to produce his own original dances. They are very much
idealised pieces.
The original LP of Kubelik and
the Vienna Philharmonic had been issued in November 1955 on LXT 5079-80. At
that date it was almost impossible to get 65 minutes onto a single disc. So,
the dances were split between two LPs with a bonus track of Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy:
Romeo and Juliet added. It was issued at the phenomenal cost of 72/11d. At
today’s prices that would have been around £68!
T.H. (Trevor Harvey) began his
review of this LP (The Gramophone, November 1955) by remarking on
Kubelik’s ‘brisk speeds for many of the dances’. This was not deemed a problem
except in the very first. He felt that ‘excitement was gained at a considerable
loss of charm.’ Having listened to this ‘Dance’ in several versions I agree
with Harvey’s comment from 65 years ago.
The same issue applied to the ‘enchanting canonic dance’ no.7 from
op.72, although in this case Harvey thinks that this ‘speed’ works. Although
the reviewer felt that the recording was good, it did not ‘emphasise the warmth
of the Vienna strings.’ Subsequent remastering’s for the CD and digital age
have done much to iron out this concern.
Nearly twenty years later, T.H.
(Trevor Harvey) reviewed the Decca Eclipse re-release (The Gramophone,
April 1974) and begun by reminded listener that a recently released album by Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karel Šejna on Supraphon (MS01505) had
managed to get all the Slavonic Dances onto a single disc. Although
believing Kubelik’s ‘performances are as authentic and attractive as Sejna’s’
he considered that ‘the sound is nothing like as good, though judged on its own
for electronic stereo from a mono issue it isn’t actually bad.’ Finally
admitting that the Supraphon LP cost £1.60, he thought that it was ‘well worth
the original money.’
Alas in those days, cost was the
important thing, so it was the Decca Eclipse version for me.
The cover photograph was a huge
disappointment to me. Compared to some of the wonderful, powerful landscapes of
the Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies, recently released the rather prosaic picture
of lilies in a pond seemed rather tame. In fact, the cover did not actually
state where the lake was.
In 1975 Rafael Kubelik made
another recording of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances, this time with the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra. It was originally released on two LPs (DG 2530 466 and DG
2530 593) and subsequently issued on CD in 1998. (457 712-2).
In the digital and CD age
Kubelik’s Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra recording of the Slavonic Dances has
been reissued several times. The most recent being on the Decca Legendary
Performances in 2014 (00028946849521). Listening to this version in its
entirety reminded me of the flamboyant and exiting recording I first heard back
in 1974. His more recent version seems laid back by comparison I will probably
stick with this recording in the future.
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