The rediscovery of the rich Eastern European repertory of the late 19th and early 20th centuries continues with this release by the
Janácek Chamber Orchestra, one of the numerous small ensembles in the supremely musical Czech Republic that merit international recognition. The genre of the suite for string orchestra was a distinct tradition during this period, used for crowd-pleasing but by no means lightweight works. Leos Janácek's Suite for string orchesta, JW VI/2, was written within three years of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for strings in C major, Op. 48; it does not have the almost neo-classic quality of the Tchaikovsky, but its six short movements, originally titled with the names of parts of the Baroque dance suite, is nearly as infectious. The Martinu Sextet for two violins, two violas, and two cellos, H. 224, is a fine example of that composer's Czech-French style, spiky and witty and the same time, and Pavel Haas' Study for string orchestra, written and premiered at the Terezin concentration before Haas was moved to Auschwitz and killed (not "met his death," as the booklet notes have it), is a superbly economical single-movement work in five sections. The program concludes with an arrangement by
Richard Tognetti of Janácek's String Quartet No. 1, JW VII/8 ("The Kreutzer Sonata"). The quartet is modeled programmatically not on Beethoven's sonata by that name but on Leo Tolstoy's novella, in which a narrator struggles with sensual impulses related to music and sexuality. The arrangement effectively renders the intimate quality of Janácek's later style into a broader manner, retaining some of the solo-group contrasts of the original instead of simply transcribing the material for string sections. The program as a whole deepens as it goes along, making for an exceptionally satisfying package with lush surfaces underlain by contrapuntal mastery in each work. Chandos makes one of its rare missteps with the sound here; it took the music into a Protestant church in the orchestra's home city of Ostrava, where it decidedly does not belong; apparently the engineers were after a brilliant rendition of the orchestra's distinctively gritty string style (very attractive in itself), but all they achieve is a muddy quality. This is nevertheless a recording that will please most listeners.