Search - Karel Husa, Jorge Mester, Louisville Orchestra :: Husa: Music for Prague 1968; Apotheosis of this Earth

Husa's Masterpiece: MUSIC FOR PRAGUE 1968

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 06/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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

"

A Stunner

Neil Cotiaux | North Canton, Ohio United States | 03/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a 1972 graduate of Ithaca College (and not from their distinguished School of Music), I had heard about Karel Husa around the margins while on campus but was absorbed in other matters and thus, never had occasion to listen to the original, more skeletal treatment of "Apotheosis" as the Environmental Movement was coming to the fore.



Out of little more than historical curiosity - and based on the fine work done by First Edition Music of Santa Fe, NM in remastering many other groundbreaking performances by The Louisville Orchestra - I purchased this CD expecting that the composer would take a fairly formulaic or cinematic-sounding approach to this musical polemic. Nothing could be further from the truth.



"Apotheosis" is a stunner that, more than 35 years after its debut, drove home to this listener the ravages that may one day be inflicted on mankind as a result of unbridled global warming.



The first movement, written to glorify the Earth from afar, begins ethereally in the manner of Ligeti's "Atmospheres" and then becomes more leaden as the detailed features of our planet majestically come into full view - but with an ominous undertow that sets the stage for the conflagration in the second movement. In that movement, Husa's artful orchestration, interwoven here and there by a chorus sounding brutalized and sliding into the abyss, conjures images of the the seacoast falling to an onslaught of waves, the brittle land cracking and splintering, infrastructure imploding, fireballs erupting, palls of haze and humankind looking for an exit - any exit. The final movement, "Postscript", brings us back into the galaxy to better sense the enormity of this tragedy, with images of bits and pieces of debris in free form, a throbbing orb below giving off its last light to be enveloped in darkness and perhaps, the spiritual vestiges of Earth's inhabitants trapped, frozen and encased in timelessness. A staggering work.



It appears that First Edition Music has completed its remastering mission, and so, this CD is now available only from third-party vendors. My experience with one of them proved exemplary.



A highly recommended purchase for "Apotheosis" alone. Find out what a truly great orchestra specializing in contemporary - and searing - music can do."