Suk is probably still best known, at any rate in this country, for the delightful Serenade; the large-scale works of his later years still have to win wide acceptance, though this is certainly growing, with eight recorded versions of Asrael in the current catalogue and six of Ripening. Each of those has been championed by Libor Pesek during his association with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and now he adds the present work to his earlier version made with the Czech Philharmonic. Written in 1907-09, Pohadka leta – A Tale of Summer or A Summer's Tale – contains a good deal of Strauss, a tinge of Mahler, some early Debussy without the formal intricacy, also perhaps some awareness of the orchestral sumptuousness of Rimsky-Korsakov. Such lists of possible influences are rather two-edged; for though they may help to place a work for the curious listener, they can suggest stylistic chaos. Suk absorbs these influences into a style that is, if not as distinctive as that of his greater Czech colleagues such as Janacek, identifiably and vividly his own. The work's real unevenness is not of invention but of form. Its five movements do not have the symphonic coherence they seem to promise, and this means that the whole is rather less than the sum of some very interesting and rewarding parts. But listened to as a suite, the work's beauties will draw and hold many listeners, especially those who relish sumptuous and expressive orchestration; and the sense of a brooding, heat-laden atmosphere is unique.
The two performances compare interestingly. There is, as one would expect, little fundamental interpretative contrast between them; but the different orchestral styles do lead to somewhat different conclusions. Broadly speaking, the Czech players produce more detailed and intricate sonorities, where the Liverpudlians are more atmospheric and richly blended. However, there is really very little choice between the two, nor does recorded quality make any significant difference. Though the overall timings for the work are similar (around 52 minutes), the Supraphon version finds room for a substantial addition in some 23 minutes of Praga, a somewhat less impressive piece which Pesek has also recorded with both orchestras, in the case of the RLPO coupled to Ripening (Virgin, 1/94), in that of the Czech PO coupled to the suite from his Raduz and Mahulena music (Supraphon, 12/85). R1 '9508042'