Miloslav Kabelác (1908-79) was one of the most important 20th century Czech composers, and he deserves far greater recognition beyond the borders of his homeland. These classic performances, very cleanly remastered and sounding better than ever, show him at his best. Mystery of Time lives up to its title: it’s a passacaglia that fascinatingly plays with rhythm and motion as the composer gradually builds up varying sonic layers until the music seems to move from slow to fast and back to slow, even though the underlying pulse hardly varies at all. The whole thing proceeds with a relaxed inevitability that betrays the hand of a master composer, and Karel Ancerl’s performance has the transparency of texture and instrumental balance the music demands. The same holds true for Hamlet Improvisation, a tense funeral march with violent outbursts whose darkly modal thematic material might recall late Vaughan Williams, though the idiom is otherwise quite individual.
Jan Hanuš’ (b. 1915) Symphony Concertante for Organ, Harp, Timpani, and Strings is one of those lovely, timeless Romantic works that you hear and wonder where it’s been hiding all of these years. Gorgeously written (especially for the harp), attractively memorable, and simply a joy from beginning to end, it cries out for a stunning modern recording that does its sonic splendor full justice. This first-rate performance, recorded in acceptable but hardly state-of-the-art mono (the rating refers to the stereo items only), gives an excellent sense of the work, but certainly leaves you wanting more regarding both the piece and the composer, whose name will be new to just about everyone. That makes this disc important both as a memento of Ancerl’s art and as a significant statement about the quality of 20th century Czech music. Magnificent.
