Opinion is divided among fans of Josef Suk as to whether the Bohemian fin de siècle composer peaked with his Serenade for Strings, his song of love, or his Asrael Symphony, his song of death, but a few think he peaked later in his career, in works like A Summer Tale, Ripening, and Epilogue. This recording of Ripening, by
Kirill Petrenko and the Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, is unlikely to change any minds. While Ripening is as ardent as the Serenade and as dramatic as the Symphony, it's also amazingly obscure and extraordinarily difficult to remember.
Petrenko and the Berlin orchestra turned in a finely played, deeply felt, and very effective version of Asrael several years prior to this CPO release, but their version of Ripening is not effective. Themes come and go, always developing and never standing still, while moods are elusive, and slip by so quickly they hardly register, except as a blur. These flaws are not
Petrenko's alone; every recorded performance since
Vaclav Talich's with the
Czech Philharmonic in 1956 has been emotionally vehement but formally vague. The performance of Suk's rarely recorded Tale of a Winter's Evening is as colorful and picturesque as the work, and just as incoherent. CPO's sound is a bit cool, but richly detailed.