Husa, Karel

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An essential aspect of Karel Husa's oeuvre, in authoritative readings
Karel Husa is THE MAN!
Maestro Husa is THE MAN.

String Quartets No.2 and No.3

Manufacturer: Phoenix USA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968; Apotheosis of this Earth
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ASIN: B00005YXZL
Release Date: 1990-01-01

Tracks:

String Quartet No.2
String Quartet No.3
Evocations of Slovakia

Album Description

Karel Husa (b. 1921 in Czechoslovakia) has taught at Comell since 1954; he composed Evocations in about 1952, the Second Quartet in 1953, and the Third in 1968. In the booklet, the composer writes charming and well-deserved tributes to these players for performances heard before the recordings were made. In turn, the Fine Arts Quartet was so impressed with, and had such success playing his Second Quartet, that they commissioned the Third, which then won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969.

The Second Quartet is in three movements: Adagio-Allegro con Fuoco, Lento assai, Adagio-Allegro con brio. It has considerable rhythmic punch in the outer movements, which assume the fashionably astringent harmonies of its time: Stravinsky colored by Martinu, perhaps; but continued listening reveals no further depth of ideas nor development thereof. It is performed with an assurance born of experience, for the Fine Arts had been playing it for seven years prior to this recording. The Third Quartet has equal flash but more heart: an Allegro moderato builds to a moving coda; the Lento assai, too, has more to say than its earlier fellow; then comes a rather Bartokian scherzo, Allegro Possibile, a series of quiet but lively moments. This quartet is more soloistic than its predecessor; the first three movements feature the cello, viola, and violins respectively. All get together for the Adagio finale, which is the most expressive and satisfying music here. Evocations of Slovakia consists of three pieces: Mountain, Night, and Dance-for a lively, virtuoso clarinet with viola and cello accompaniment; they reach across the Danube to evoke Bartok as well, The Miraculous Mandarin in particular.

Customer Reviews:

An essential aspect of Karel Husa's oeuvre, in authoritative readings.......2007-02-13

Thanks to Phoenix for bringing back on CD this landmark Everest recording of Karel Husa's 2nd and 3rd string quartets by the Fine Arts Quartet, to which they added "Evocations de Slovaquie", an early piece for clarinet, viola and cello, which originally came on a Grenadilla LP with Alan Hovhaness' "Firdausi" for clarinet, harp and percusion Op. 252. The information on the CD about recording dates is unfortunately non existent. The quartets were released in 1971 and Evocations in 1977, and the CD was published in 1990.

The 2nd quartet was composed in 1953 at the behest of the French Parrenin Quartet, which later, in 1959, toured with it the United States. George Sopkin, the cellist of the Fine Arts Quartet, attended one of those concerts, liked the work, and the Fine Arts picked it up. That led to the commission given by the Fine Arts Quartet to Husa for another String Quartet, which was completed in 1968 and which, unknown from the composer, was presented by its dedicatees to the much coveted Pulitzer Prize - which it won, in 1969.

The influence of Bartok can be heard in the earlier composition, but Husa is more advanced in his compositional language and fiercer in his expression, as well as starker in the brooding second movement and the slow intro to the third. In the highly virtuosic third quartet Husa uses a wide array of daring playing techniques exploited to coloristic effects: dramatic glissandos, eerie harmonics and strings playing in their extreme registers, col legno staccatos and so forth. In the first movement the viola features predominantly, with wild solos, in the second movement it is the cello and in the third both violins; In the fourth, all instruments come together.

Evocations de Slovaquie was composed in 1951 and is instrumentally (clarinet, viola and cello) and stylistically situated somewhere between Bartok's Contrasts and Rhapsodies for violin. The Long Island Chamber Ensemble is comprised of Lawrence Sobold (clarinet), Louis Schulman (viola) and Timothy Eddy (cello). As for the quartets, they mirror in more than one way (one being, by an extraordinary coincidence, their same years of composition) those of another major contemporary composer from Central Europe: Gyorgy Ligeti, with the early one still indebted to Bartok though already highly personal, and the second breaking new grounds in contemporary string quartet language. As these, those of Husa belong to any collection of contemporary music.

Good notes, including reminiscences by Husa on the circumstances of first performances and recordings. All the interpretations are authoritative, by the composer's own avowal.

Karel Husa is THE MAN!.......2001-11-14

If you are among the many people who have never heard Husa's music, I pity you. GET WITH IT! BUY THIS CD!
Here are Husa's three best known chamber works, the second (my personal favorite) and the Pulitzer Prize winning third String Quartets, and Evocations de Slovaquie, which is also quite a trip. His music is atonal, which some people do not particularly care for, but I tell you, even if you avoid atonality like the leprosy, you will still love Karel Husa. I have taken people that don't even like Mozart to Husa concerts, and they always leave with jaws dropped.
The performances are definitely of great substance, too. The Fine Arts Quartet does justice to these rather challenging pieces, and the direction of the Long Island Chamber Ensemble definitely serves "Evocations" well too.
In conclusion, all I can say is that if you don't buy this CD, I will be hurt. I will lock myself in the bathroom and cry for three and a half hours.

Maestro Husa is THE MAN........2001-11-13

If you are among the people on earth who have never heard any music by the esteemed Karel Husa, I pity you. GET WITH IT! You definitely need to buy both this CD and a CD of Music for Prague (which is even better live, by the way). I know there are a lot of people who don't like atonality for a variety of reasons, but I've taken friends who don't even like Mozart to concerts of Husa's music, and they've all walked away with jaws dropped. Husa's music is pure fireworks, as is evidenced by the Fine Arts Quartet's electrifying perfromances of his two most renowned quartets, #'s 2 and 3. Be forewarned, though, Husa is addictive. If you buy this CD, you will probably have to buy every CD of his music you will ever find anywhere. I have had the privelige of meeting and even getting a couple of lessons with Maestro Husa, and all I can say is that there is nothing about this man that is not cool. Buy! Buy! Buy! BUY!!!!!!!

Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968; Apotheosis of this Earth

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Husa's Masterpiece: MUSIC FOR PRAGUE 1968

Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968; Apotheosis of this Earth

Manufacturer: First Edition
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Binding: Audio CD

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Apotheosis Of This Earth: Music Of Karel Husa for Wind Orchestra

ASIN: B00009EIQ7
Release Date: 2003-06-10

Customer Reviews:

Husa's Masterpiece: MUSIC FOR PRAGUE 1968.......2007-06-02

Karel Husa is a brilliant composer who is Czech by birth but has lived a great deal of his life in the United States. And while to the concert going public his name may not be a household word, his music is bound to live far beyond his lifetime. At 86 years he is still an active composer and teacher and shares his gifts openly with the public. The recordings of his highly regarded MUSIC FOR PRAGUE 1968 are too few, but this recording with Jorge Mester conducting the Louisville Orchestra is superb and gives us the added pleasure of becoming acquainted with Husa's APOTHEOSIS OF THIS EARTH which is likewise a staggeringly beautiful work.

But for all the great output of this composer the MUSIC FOR PRAGUE 1968 will doubtless be his calling card in musical history. Written in August 1968 in Ithaca, NY after hearing of the Soviet invasion of Prague, the work is for huge orchestra and molds simple Czech folk themes into the people's voice as the machine of tyranny crushed them. In Husa's comments (at a recent performance of the work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen) the main theme is one of Freedom. The work opens with the tympani establishing the four note theme and then this theme is transformed into the massive cry against the invasion, softened here and there by bird calls (doves of peace?) and the bells of Prague that toll throughout the day. The work is in four movements with the greatest moments of passion unveiled in the second movement (Aria) only to be followed by the Interlude written solely for percussive instruments and winding to a heart-stopping end with an extended multi snare drum roll that ultimately introduces the triumphant paean to Freedom of the last movement. The effect is not only overwhelmingly emotional: it is also some of the finest orchestral writing of the past century.

Mester gives a fine performance here and while one may wish for stronger sonics in the recording that would bring the performance into more immediacy, the impact is intact. It is a masterpiece and one that belongs in every music lover's library. Grady Harp, June 07

Apotheosis Of This Earth: Music Of Karel Husa for Wind Orchestra

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a great introduction to an essential part of Husa's oeuvre

Apotheosis Of This Earth: Music Of Karel Husa for Wind Orchestra

Manufacturer: Mark Custom
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968; Apotheosis of this Earth

ASIN: B0001ZQ5KI
Release Date: 2002-10-01

Tracks:

Smetana Fanfare
Al Fresco
I. Overture
II. Scherzo
III. Song
IV. Slovak Dance
Maestoso
Moderato molto
Allegro ma non troppo
Allegretto moderato
Quasi fantasia-Moderato molto
Allegretto moderato

Tracks:

proloue
Ostinato
Epilogue
Apotheosis
Tragedy of Destruction
Postscript

Album Description

This CD represents contemporary wind band literature. Karel Husa is the field's king. For the first time in his 80-year history, someone has amassed a collection of this Wind Band Master's music. This CD accentuates rarely recorded works of his Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble with Jonathan Sokasits, piano and Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble. This double CD displays Husa's emotional title track Apotheosis of This Earth. Al Fresco, Divertimento for Brass and Percussion, Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Concert Band, Steven Mauk, saxophone, and Husa's famous Smetana Fanfare rounds out the CD. The recording is done in the perfect style to display the vivid colors, shapes and images this music demands. This double CD will be as hot as the summer temperatures.

Customer Reviews:

a great introduction to an essential part of Husa's oeuvre.......2007-02-19

Karel Husa, probably due to his 38-year tenure at Cornell University and the presence of the house Wind band at his disposal, wrote extensively for the medium, and this double CD gathers almost half of his output in the genre. Among Husa's major compositions for the medium, his 1976 American Te Deum, his more recent "Les Couleurs fauves" (1996) and of course his famous and most often-perfomed piece "Music for Prague 1968" are here missing.

The compositions contained in these two CDs fall in two categories: those that are re-scorings of early pieces dating from his Czech and Paris years (the 1958 Divertimento for Brass and Percussion, an expansion of movements from the 1955 Eight Czech Duets, a fact not mentioned in the otherwise very informative liner notes, the 1974 Al Fresco, the 1983 Concertino for Piano and Wind Ensemble). They are marked by strong Czech and Slovak folk music elements, while the sunny Concertino (after Husa's 1949 Concertino for Piano and Orchestra) is written in an early modernist, enjoyable but rather anonymous style reminiscent of Honegger's or Schulhoff's similar compositions, despite nice twists of orchestration (which may be typical of Husa's more recent hand). It makes for pleasant but hardly memorable listening.

The only one of those re-scored pieces that transcends its origins is Al Fresco, after the 1947 Fresques (which can be found on the Marco Polo release, along with the full-orchestra version of Music for Prague and the 2nd Symphony - a good introduction to the composer's orchestral works). The wind and percussion scoring imparts it a raw energy and biting edge that blurs its folkloristic elements in favour of a more modern and angular color (sometimes you might think you were hearing the Jets and Sharks Dance in West Side Story).

The other category is that of the original compositions: the short Smetana Fanfare (1984), the Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble (1970), the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Concert Band (1967), and Apotheosis of This Earth (1971). The new works are music of great sonic invention and tremendous energy, not always very subtle in their raw power and piling up of strata of sound buttressed by heavy percussion, but hugely effective, aggressive but always accessible. Especially inventive and powerful is the percussion concerto.

A few specific words on "Apotheosis of This Earth". It was conceived as a cry of revolt and warning against Mankind's destruction of the earth and of its beauties. How lamentably still topical today! It was originally scored for Wind band with optional mixed chorus - it is here heard without, although in the last movement, as in the version with chorus, the words "this beautiful earth" can be heard, presumably pronounced by the band members. As a number of his Wind band compositions, Husa subsequently re-scored it for large orchestra (other examples are his "Music for Prague 1968"and American Te Deum). That version with chorus and orchestra can be found on CD in a composer-conducted performance with the Louisville Orchestra, first released with Husa's Monodrama and shorter pieces of Lutoslawski and Creston (I've reviewed it) and then reissued with a recording of Music for Prague by Jorge Mester. It is both more mysterious (thanks to the softer tone afforded by the strings) and more powerful (in the brutal second movement, depicting Mankind self-destructive onslaught on the planet, the worldless chorus adds a sense of ominous menace, and when it turns to screams and clapped hands at the end of the movement you can imagine Mankind being engulfed in the mouth of hell, an effect not quite achieved in the original version), but the wind version is perfectly valid in its own right. There was by the way an earlier composer-conducted recording, on a GC 4134 LP, with the University of Michigan Symphonic Winds, coupled with Music for Prague, but so far as I know it unfortunately hasn't been reissued on CD.

Stupendously vivid sound, good liner notes, but with timings of 56' and 43' there would have been enough place to fit it Music for Prague. Nonetheless, this is a great introduction to this essential part of Husa's oeuvre. Now the same band needs to record the remainder of his compositions for Winds.

Eastman Wind Ensemble Plays Husa, Copland, Vaughan Williams, Hindemith

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The Hunsberger Era of the Eastman Wind Ensemble
Outstanding Work by Eastman Performers
Continuing to set the standard
Two thumbs up

Eastman Wind Ensemble Plays Husa, Copland, Vaughan Williams, Hindemith
Ralph Vaughan Williams , Paul Hindemith , Aaron Copland , Karel Husa , Donald Hunsberger , Mark Kellogg , William [trumpet] Williams , Wynton Marsalis , Philip Koch , and Eastman Wind Ensemble
Manufacturer: Sony
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Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000026PX
Release Date: 1989-05-11

Tracks:

Toccata marziale
Variations For Wind Band: Theme: Andante maestoso
Variations For Wind Band: Variation I: Poco tranquillo
Variations For Wind Band: Variation II: Tranquillo cantabile
Variations For Wind Band: Variation III: Allegro
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Variations For Wind Band: Variation V: Moderato sostenuto
Variations For Wind Band: Variation VI: Tempo di Valse
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Variations For Wind Band: Variation VIII: Alla polacca
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Quiet City
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Music For Prague: II - Aria: Moderato molto
Music For Prague: III - Interlude: Misterioso
Music For Prague: IV - Toccata And Chorale: Vivace

Customer Reviews:

The Hunsberger Era of the Eastman Wind Ensemble.......2004-10-13

I purchased this CD primarily to have a recording of the Husa composition Music for Prague. This is the first Eastman Wind Ensemble recording I've listened to that wasn't conducted by Frederick Fennell.

I am not familiar with most of the music on the CD; the only piece I've heard before is the Toccata Marziale. The music seems to be well-executed to me.

While I admire what Frederick Fennell did in bringing the Eastman Wind Ensemble to the top of the list of wind ensembles and symphonic bands, I've always thought the final result was a little bit too well blended. The Fennell sound was so homogenous that sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the saxophones and the cornets. With Hunsberger, the blend is still there, but each section of the ensemble has a distinct flavor -- a shade closer to the University of Michigan concept of a band sound than Eastman. The intonation was outstanding, and the group turns in a virtuoso performance on very difficult music that would challenge most elite college bands.

I don't know for a fact, but I'm assuming this recording was made in the Eastman Concert Hall in Rochester. There are a few times when the forte and fortissimo passages get away from the engineer. Otherwise, there's a very nice balance with just the right amount of reverberation and echo (well, maybe a tad too much, but that is a matter of my personal taste).

I recommend this CD, which is affordably priced.

Outstanding Work by Eastman Performers.......2000-11-13

This is an excellently performed CD with numerous powerful moments. Although Wynton Marsalis's name is prominent on the cover, he only plays on one piece - Copland's Quiet City. Quiet City is a duet between trumpet and English horn and Marsalis's playing here is very beautiful and expressive. Another excellent Quiet City recording (played by Phil Smith) can be found with a strong Copland 3rd Symphony by Bernstein/ NY Phil on DG. Both recordings get top marks. The Vaughn Williams and Hindemith works here are fairly straightforward and are also well performed.

The Husa Music for Prague 1968 is extremely powerful although not as initially listener-friendly as Copland and Vaughn Williams. The music has to do with the invasion of Prague by the Soviets in 1968 and while I enjoy the entire piece, I find the very end extremely powerful. Among the more avant garde techniques used in the piece, Husa also uses a Hussite war song as a chorale. At the end of the piece, as the ensemble sustains a long chord, the snare drum repeats a martial pattern that grows louder and louder. When the snare drum reaches its loudest, everything else drops out, leaving the snare drum to sound alone, as though the Soviets are marching into Prague. This moment of triumph is short, though, as the snare drum is quickly smothered by a full ensemble statement of the Hussite war song. It is a very poweful moment.

I enjoy this CD very much, but don't be fooled by the Marsalis name into thinking that this is an all Marsalis album. This CD covers a wide variety of emotions and is another excellent album from the Eastman Wind Ensemble.

Continuing to set the standard.......2000-10-08

I am really enjoying this CD, particularly the Toccata Marziale. I enjoy how Hunsberger interpreted the piece and allowed a lot of the clarinet lines to project. On other recordings, I've found the clarinet lines to be rather obscure. But not this one!! Excellent balance within the brass. The Variations for Brass Band (wind band in this case) is played very well, and the excellent transcription is worth noting. Excellent recording!!

Two thumbs up.......2000-09-09

This is a very good recording with some terrific pieces on it. Donald Hunsberger and Eastman really make the pieces sound great. They have a nice sound and know how to let loose on pieces, which is great. Great cd to have in your personal library.

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Visions in Metaphor

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00005NF2U
Release Date: 2001-07-31

Tracks:

Postmark [Fearful Symmetries]
Accompanied Recitative
Postcard from Home
Mirrorrim
Postcard from Kansas: Welcome to Interstate-70
Pensive Soliloquy
Continuum (Postscript '97)
Memo 6
Visions in Metaphor
Facades
Wings
e et Rondeau

Average customer rating:

A fine collection of recent compositions for Wind Ensemble
Add this to your collection!

New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000K2N6
Release Date: 1999-08-24

Tracks:

Ceremonial For Symphonic Wind Band
Olympic Dances: Prelude
Olympic Dances: Epithalamion
Olympic Dances: Variations
Olympic Dances: Finale
Concerto For Four Solo Percussion & Wind Ensemble: Recitavo Quasi Senza Misura, Largo e Rubato
Concerto For Four Solo Percussion & Wind Ensemble: Allegro con brio
Concerto For Four Solo Percussion & Wind Ensemble: Cadenza e Variazioni
Les Couleurs Fauves: Persisting Bells
Les Couleurs Fauves: Ritual Dance Masks (Part I)
Les Couleurs Fauves: Ritual Dance Masks (Part II)

Customer Reviews:

A fine collection of recent compositions for Wind Ensemble.......2007-03-11

Bernard Rands' 12 and ½ minute "Ceremonial" (1992) is a mysterious and dramatic ritual. It starts with an alternation of imposing brass chords and hazy harmonic clusters over a drum tattoo (certain passage of Varèse's Amériques comes to mind), from which a sinuous and wistful melody soon emerges (1:43), played by the bassoon in its upper register, and whose contour recalls the theme from Ravel's Bolero. The Bolero inspiration is very much in evidence, as the motto returns, each time more complex in orchestration and with a progressive crescendo, regularly interrupted by the strange harmonies, until its climactic and abrupt conclusion.

John Harbison's four "Olympic Dances" (1997) are written in the vein of Stravinsky's Symphony of Wind Instruments, with whiffs of Tippett's Ritual Dances from his Opera "Midsummer Marriage". It is mostly pastoral in character. This is not one of its composer's most original and memorable compositions.

In his Concerto for Four Solo Percussion & Wind Ensemble (1995), William Kraft doesn't go just for sheer unleashed power, as you might expect from such a piece. Despite occasional outbursts, the composition is mostly subdued and goes for color rather than violence. With its crystalline glockenspiel and vibraphone over hushed tremolos in the winds, the first movement is mysterious and beautiful as a dream of Chinese bells and gongs. The second movement an A-B-A' form, starting with a perky dialog of flute and bassoon soon joined by brass, reminiscent of the "Giuoco delle coppie" movement in Bartok's Concerto for orchestra. At 1:09 enters a half-military, half-Jazz-like rhythmic drumming, and two minutes later a more vehement version of the beginning music over percussion closes the movement.

The third movement is original in its construction, starting with a powerful and menacing cadenza for solo timpani, followed by a series of 12 variations arranged in couples, with percussion statement and orchestral comment. In its moments of unleashed power, the movement is close to some of Husa's compositions (the percussion movements of his "Music for Prague 1968" and "Apotheosis of this Earth", for instance), but here again, Kraft's music is oftentimes texturally quite sparse and deals more with color than violence.

"Couleurs Fauves" (1995) is one of Husa's most recent works for Wind Ensemble (a fine collection of almost half of his output in the genre can be found on a 2CD set from Mark Custom Records - see my review). It starts in a manner strikingly close to Kraft's Concerto, with a sinuous and sensuous melody played by oboe over drops of glockenspiel (the movement is titled "persisting bells"). In a simple formal construction often favored by Husa, that material is soon elaborated and rises to a triumphant, almost Britten-like climax, then recedes back to the introductory melody, now played by piccolo. The second movement "Ritual Dance Masks" is more violent and dramatic, much in the mood of the same second movement of "Apotheosis of this Earth" which I referred to here above, depicting the destruction of planet earth. The movement's second part (here conveniently sub-tracked) returns to the mood of the first movement, with another sinuous melody now on clarinet over drum tattoo, soon joined by piccolo flute playing quarter-tone slides. Another awe-inspiring and brassy build-up of tension and this time the movement ends at its climactic point. Husa's formal procedures may be simple and perhaps even simplistic, but they contribute to his music's great dramatic impact.

Add this to your collection!.......2000-02-01

A must for any wind ensemble collection. Battisti's interpretation of these challenging pieces captures every subtle nuance, every emotion. The Husa is indeed breathtaking, one of the finest recordings of any Husa composition. This is a great collection of contemporary wind literature.

Husa: Music for Prague 1968, Symphony no 2 "Reflections", Fresque

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A good introduction to the orchestral music of Karel Husa
Husa is a genious
No music lover should go without experiencing Husa!

Husa: Music for Prague 1968, Symphony no 2 "Reflections", Fresque

Manufacturer: Marco Polo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Tracks:

Music for Prague 1968: Fresque
Music for Prague 1968: Moderate
Music for Prague 1968: Very fast
Music for Prague 1968: Slow
Music for Prague 1968: Introduction and Fanfare
Music for Prague 1968: Aria
Music for Prague 1968: Interlude
Music for Prague 1968: Toccata and Chorale

Customer Reviews:

A good introduction to the orchestral music of Karel Husa.......2007-02-11

Karel Husa is an important American composer born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1921. After initial music training in his home country, he lived in Paris from 1947 to 1954, resisting a summon from the Czech government spawn from the Communist seizure of power in the early months of 1948 to return to his homeland. In Paris he studied composition with Honegger and Nadia Boulanger and conducting with Eugène Bigot, Jean Fournet and André Cluytens, and already attracted some attention as a composer, earning prizes for his 1st string quartet from 1948. In 1954 he answered an invitation of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to become composition teacher, and established himself in the United States. He became a US citizen in 1959 and remained at Cornell until his retirement in 1992.

Husa thus followed a familiar pattern and path to the United States via pre- or post-war Paris, placing him in the good company of composers such as Ernest Bloch, Alexandre Tcherepnin, Miklos Rozsa and Igor Stravinsky (to say nothing of the even more numerous composers who jumped directly from their native country to the New, Sheltering and Promising World). These biographical elements have some bearing on the contents of this present disc, as, though having spent the greater part of his life, and certainly of his years of maturity, in the United States, Husa always remained rather European-looking in his compositional outlook. His arrival in the US began a new, prolific and also more mature and personal chapter in his compositional career. He once stated that he probably would have been a much more conservative composer had he stayed home. But being confronted both to the past-masters and past masterpieces which he felt there was no point in trying to emulate, and to the intellectual turmoil that had seized the European composition scene in the post-war years, Husa was led to embrace many the new techniques (aleatoric procedures, quarter tones, polytonality, search for new sonorities), but without relinquishing the link to the past forms. A few years ago he declared: "I accept new things. I'm not revolting against something new. On the contrary, I think there must be some potential good in new things. (...) The avant guard is the faction that keeps us going on ahead", and also "in many ways I am a traditionalist. Perhaps not in that exact term, but I have roots that came from the past." As the disc's liner notes put it, "Husa's musical rhetoric represents an amalgamation of past and present, successfully combining contemporary harmonic idiom with an almost neo-classical attention to balance, clarity and form (...), and his synthesis of old and new elements has made his music enjoyable and accessible to the general listening public"

Fresque dates from Husa's early, Paris years (1949). It was written under the influence of Honegger and, as the liner notes point out, is reminiscent of the Swiss composer's symphonic poem "Rugby" - but I also hear in it echoes of early Bartok, the composer of the 4 pieces for orchestra Op. 12 and The Wooden Prince - Husa being here rather less personal. But it is interesting at least as a reminder of where the composer comes from and how far he has gone from there.

Music for Prague is Husa's most popular and often played composition. It was written in 1968 in reaction to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, first for wind band then re-orchestrated for normal symphony orchestra, which is how we hear it here. The music is descriptive, at least on a symbolic plane: the first movement's opening piccolo bird-call represents Prague's new-found liberty, the dramatic outburst of brass and percussion evokes the approaching menace of Soviet tanks, the second movement's funeral march with its bells inspired by Prague's "thousand spires" and its long-held string chords represents the tragedy of the Czech people, the final, majestic peroration, based on the famous a famous Hussite War Song, expresses the enduring hope of the Czech nation. But the music can also be heard and appreciated without any knowledge of the underlying "program", and particularly felicitous is the strikingly original 3rd movement ("Interlude") scored for percussion alone, sounding like an expansion of the beginning of the slow movement of Bartok's first piano concerto. Music for Prague is dramatic, impactful and accessible - in my opinion, just a little too programmatic and cinematographic to belong to the composer's most intellectually nourishing works.

The 2nd symphony (subtitled "Reflections") from 1982-3 is the most advanced and, to me, rewarding work on this disc, the one in which Husa's stylistic hallmarks, his exploration of novel sonorities, are the most in evidence. It begins with a mysterious and haunting, sinuous oboe melody with quarter tone slides over a shimmer of string glissandos, slowly building up with long-held string chords to a dramatic, percussion punctuated climax, then receding to a soft, brooding ending played by double-bass and bassoon. With its fast moving 6/8 sixteenth notes, the 2nd movement follows a long string of tradition starting with the Scherzo of Beethoven's 9th symphony and continuing with like movements of Bruckner, Britten, Walton, Tippett; it starts with agitated temple block solo soon turning to a trio with tom-toms and timpani, and is rhythmic and percussive like some wild Caribbean dance, producing lots of tension. Long held string and wind chords with pounding bell-like percussion of great dramatic impact (somewhat reminiscent of the symphonies of Isang Yun) feature prominently in the last movement, which ends with a melismatic flute & alto-flute duo, mirroring the introductory oboe . The symphony may not be not as subtle and sensuous in its orchestration as similar symphonic works by Lutoslawski, nor as daring in its exploration of sonorities as Ligeti, but Husa's language is nonetheless uncompromising but still highly dramatic and accessible.

This disc gives a fine overview of the evolution of Husa's compositional style(s) and, given the price, it is one of the best introductions to its composer's orchestral music. Good, informative notes by Leland Jonathan Yee.

Husa is a genious.......2000-03-12

Also as a performer of this piece, I must say that it is deeply moving from inside the music. Husa uses pure genius to create textures through instruments, and truly makes one feel as though they were in Prague during the Russian invasion. Having a somewhat biased opinion, I personally prefer the Aria (mostly because I play the saxophone) but also because it is a magnificently written work of pure genius. If you like music that tells a story, be prepared to fall in love with Music for Prague 1968!

No music lover should go without experiencing Husa!.......1999-01-25

This is an unusual review in that I have never actually heard "Music for Prague 1968" as a member of an audience. However, I have had the immense honor of playing this piece in a very respectable college wind ensemble. Husa's work is not only powerful and moving, but a listener (or a performer like me) leaves the experience forever changed. I saw an audience sit for a full minute in complete silence at the conclusion of the Tocatta- no one dared to applaud. Innovative and inspiring, Husa is at his emotional best in these selections.

Average customer rating:

Something for everyone -- and some things for no one ...
Wonderful playing, but not all at once

Compassion: A Tribute to Yehudi Menuhin
Philip Glass , Edna Michell , Allen Ginsberg , and Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Manufacturer: Angel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Philip Glass : The Voyage: An Opera in Three Acts

ASIN: B00005LMLD
Release Date: 2001-06-19

Tracks:

Tavener: Song Of The Angel
Ran: Yearning
Chen Yi: Romance Of Hsiao And Ch'u
Henze: Adagio adagio
Leef: T'Filah
Ruders: Credo
Satoh: Innocence
Rihm: Cantilena
Xenakis: Huuem-Iduhey
Foss: Romance
Husa: Stele
Olivero: Achot Ketana
Kurtag: Ligatura
Glass: Echorus
Riech: Duet

Amazon.com

Fifteen of the world's greatest living composers contributed works for Compassion, the musical tribute to Yehudi Menuhin and the enlightened ideals of the late violin maestro. The lineup is impressive and seemingly spans the entire spectrum of contemporary composing styles: John Tavener, Hans Werner Henze, Poul Ruders, Iannis Xenakis, Lukas Foss, Philip Glass, and numerous others. Oddly, the music they've written is, for the most part, quite similar--short, somber pieces that, not surprisingly, emphasize the violin. There are some impressive achievements, however. Somei Satoh's "Innocence" for soprano, violin, and cellos sounds a little like the "holy minimalism" of Arvo Pärt; Glass's "Echorus" features the narration of Allen Ginsberg; and Foss's "Romance" pursues a fading-Americana theme and includes an excerpt from Walt Whitman. The six-minute work for violin, string orchestra, and soprano also has a spirited mood, which is quite refreshing on this sobering disc. Violinist and Menuhin collaborator Edna Michell lovingly plays all these pieces with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. It's a unique tribute to a unique figure in Classical music, but it's not for everyone. For an even better sense of Menuhin's magic, check out one of his legendary early recordings. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews:

Something for everyone -- and some things for no one ..........2005-06-02

I agree that this collection of 15 20th-Century music is best taken in portions, rather than its entirety. I enjoy many of the compositions more than others, but on the whole the selections are engaging. I didn't care for the Glass work, "Echorus", but that's my own personal prejudice (this was the first Glass composition to make its way into my 400+ classical CD collection). The less tonal works are hard to digest all at once, but if you have an ear for atonality, you should enjoy the middle tracks, particularly the Leef, Xenakis, Foss, and Husa. The final Duet for violins and string orchestra was my first exposure to a composition by Steven Reich other than his Music for Eighteen Musicians. Unfortunately, my CD has some damage to this track at the very end; I don't know if this is a problem with copies other than my own. This is an eclectic selection, but one that belongs in the library of serious modern music connoisseurs.

Wonderful playing, but not all at once.......2001-11-27

I ordered this CD after hearing excerpts of it on Chicago's classical music radio station, WFMT. The CD does present a wonderful selection of works by prominent composers of the past decade. The playing is wonderful, and the pieces are valuable contributions to the repertoire. I did find that the pieces were similar enough to not want to hear all 79'13" at one sitting. I am definitely glad that I purchased this recording. How many places can one go to sample works by Tavener, Ran (I particularly liked this work), Chen Yi, Henze, Xenakis and ten other composers in less than an hour and twenty minutes?

Average customer rating:

Gre
Where is the cover?

Temple University Wind Symphony

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000049RN
Release Date: 1997-12-16

Tracks:

Var On A Theme Of Glinka: Intro/Theme Andantino/Var.I Allegretto/Var.II Poco Piu Mosso... - Jonathan Blumenfeld
Con: Allegro Moderato - Anthony M. Gigliotti
Con: Andante - Anthony M. Gigliotti
Con: Allegro Moderato - Anthony M. Gigliotti
Con: Allegro Vivace - Eric Carlson
Con: Andante Cantabile - Eric Carlson
Con: Allegro - Eric Carlson
Music For Prague: Intro and Fanfare - Temple University Wind Sym/Karel Husa
Music For Prague: Aria - Temple University Wind Sym/Karel Husa
Music For Prague: Interlude - Temple University Wind Sym/Karel Husa
Music For Prague: Toccata And Chorale - Temple University Wind Sym/Karel Husa
Athletic Festival March, Op.69 No.1 - Temple University Wind Sym/Karel Husa

Customer Reviews:

Gre.......2006-07-31

These are great concertos for Trombone, for CLarinet
and for Oboe. I read in the composer's autobiography
that in fact R-K did not regarded these concertos
highly, in fact for him they were just a teaching
devise, they don't even bear an opus number in
R-K's catalog of works. The Oboe concerto
is called also "Variations on a theme of Glinka"
and the clarinet concertot is refer to as:
Konzertstuck for Clarinet and Band. Rimsky-Korsakov
wrote these concertos when he was still inspector
of naval bands in the Russian navy. To me
these are great works that deserve more
recognition than what they get.I believe
that they wonderful works. The Trombone
Concerto for instance the soloist get a lot
of work especially in the last movement.
A five star recording indeed and too bad
the composer did not like them.

Where is the cover?.......2001-10-24

I usually like to see the jacket or art. Why is there no photo of the CD?

Husa: Sonata For Violin And Piano/Sonata No.2 For Piano/Twelve Moravian Songs

Average customer rating:

New, unusual and significant sonatas from the early to mid seventies

Husa: Sonata For Violin And Piano/Sonata No.2 For Piano/Twelve Moravian Songs

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000030JD
Release Date: 1996-01-30

Tracks:

Sonata for Violin and Piano: Movement 1
Sonata for Violin and Piano: Movement 2
Sonata for Violin and Piano: Interlude
Sonata for Violin and Piano: Movement 3
Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Movement 1
Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Movement 2
Sonata No. 2 For Piano: Movement 3
Twelve Moravian Songs: Sunrise
Twelve Moravian Songs: Who Is That?
Twelve Moravian Songs: The Deserter
Twelve Moravian Songs: Between Two Mountains
Twelve Moravian Songs: When I Sing
Twelve Moravian Songs: What Is Wrong?
Twelve Moravian Songs: Song For Dancing
Twelve Moravian Songs: Echo In The Mountains
Twelve Moravian Songs: The Snowball
Twelve Moravian Songs: Aspen Leaves
Twelve Moravian Songs: Last Love
Twelve Moravian Songs: Homeland, Goodbye

Customer Reviews:

New, unusual and significant sonatas from the early to mid seventies.......2007-01-30

This collection stems from three Grenadilla LPs, two recorded in 1978 and one ten years later. Grenadilla GS-1032 contained Husa's 1972 violin and piano sonata, and back then violinist Elmar Oliveira was still the recent winner of the famous Tchaikovsky competition, and first American fiddler to do so. It was paired with Pamela Layman's aleatoric "Gravitation 1". The 1975 second piano sonata appeared a few months later on GS-1025 with works by Ingolf Dahl (Sonata da Camera for clarinet & piano) and David Diamond (Vocalises for soprano & viola). There was a nearly contemporary recording of the sonata, published on a Golden Crest LP with a more coherent coupling of Husa's 1943 sonatina, first piano sonata from 1949 and 1957 Elegy, all played by Mary Ann Covert, but it has not been reissued on CD. The Moravian songs were recorded and published in 1988 on GSC 1073, coupled with Alan Hovhaness' "O Lady Moon" for soprano, clarinet and piano and Walter Piston's violin and piano sonata from 1939. Astounding to think that as far as 1988 there were still labels who insisted on publishing only on LP.

In the sonatas, Husa's musical language is entirely contemporary. He uses a vast array of modern playing techniques, giving the pieces much color if not always very remarkable structural coherence: ostinati, repeated notes, plucked piano strings, clusters struck with depressed sustaining pedal, creating piano harmonics (Schoenberg was the first to use that effect), playing in the highest and lowest registers, sliding tones, quarter-tones and harmonics on the violin. The piano writing is oftentimes reminiscent of Crumb, whose unique compositional personality comes precisely from the coloristic effects borne from the use of such techniques. The violin effects sometimes evoke the masterful "Caprices" of Salvatore Sciarrino - actually written a few years later. Architecturally, both pieces pay some tribute to sonata form by broadly following a fast-slow-fast construction and contrasting moods within each movement. The playing seems fully authoritative, the sound is entirely up-to-date.

Husa is quoted by the liner notes saying "it is difficult to add something new, unusual and, hopefully, significant... Yet, newer ways always arise." Well, in the case of the two compositions, they have.

The 12 Moravian Songs come from an earlier period of Husa's compositional life and inhabit an entirely different stylistic universe. They were written in 1955 after authentic Moravian folk songs remembered by Husa, who hardly changed the melodic line but added a discreet piano part of his own. Pleasant though hardly memorable, they are here finely sung by Barbara Ann Martin in stylish English translations by Ruth Martin.

As customary with New World Records, excellent notes, with selective bibliography and discography.

Music Composers:

Music Composers

Music Composers