About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

The facts speak for themselves: Dvorák composed his "Stabat Mater" after the deaths of his first three children and Suk composed his "Asrael Symphony" after the deaths of his father-in-law Dvorák and then his young wife Ottilie, Dvorák's fourth child. And yet, for all the music's horrors and anguish, Dvorák's "Stabat Mater" and Suk's "Asrael" are ultimately deeply consoling, both finally providing comfort and solace to those shattered by grief.

In Supraphon's distinguished series of re-releases of the recorded legacy of Václav Talich, the coupling of his 1952 recordings of the "Stabat Mater" and the "Asrael" is inspired. Talich, universally acknowledged to be the greatest Czech conductor of the twentieth century, was steeped in the music of both composers. He'd made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic leading the premiere of Suk's "Ripening" two days after the Czech Republic was declared and his recordings of Dvorák's "Slavonic Dance" and Smetana's "Má Vlast" made his international reputation in the '30s. And Talich, of course, was the conductor who built the Czech Philharmonic into an orchestra of marvelous strength, wonderful suppleness, and ineffable sweetness, and whose forced separation from them in the years after the Communist revolution was painful for them both. They were, however, allowed to make recordings together, and thus there are these performances of the "Stabat Mater" and the "Asrael," performances of immense power, tremendous intensity and enormous profundity. While only the foolhardy would try to listen to both works back-to-back, anyone who loves late romantic music will have to hear these performances. They were, in their time as they are in ours, the greatest recordings either work had ever received. Supraphon's monaural sound is big and gray but honest. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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