Josef

SUKFairy TaleFantasy in G minor

Fantastic Scherzo

Michael Ludwig, Violin

Buffalo PhilharmonicOrchestra

JoAnn Falletta8.572323 4

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was foundedin 1935 and makes its home in Kleinhans MusicHall, a National Historic Landmark with aninternational reputation as one of the greatestconcert halls in the United States. Through thedecades the orchestra has grown in stature under anumber of distinguished conductors includingWilliam Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss,Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, SemyonBychkov, and Maximiano Valdès. As Buffalo’scultural ambassador, the BPO has performedacross the United States, Canada and Europe,including concerts at Lincoln Center, KennedyCenter, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’sDavies Hall and 22 appearances in Carnegie Hall.

The orchestra’s European tour included two sold-out performances in Vienna’s Musikverein, and concerts in Milan,Geneva, Zurich and Frankfurt, among other venues. The BPO performs 120 concerts annually and is heard bymillions on radio broadcasts across the United States and beyond on American Public Media’s Performance Today.For more information, please visit www.bpo.org

JoAnn Falletta

JoAnn Falletta currently serves as music director of both the Buffalo Philharmonicand the Virginia Symphony and has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras inNorth America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, SouthAmerica and Africa. Recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the ArtsConductors Award, winner of the Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditsonand Bruno Walter conducting awards, JoAnn Falletta has also received ten awardsfrom the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) and serves on theU.S. National Council on the Arts. A champion of American music, she haspresented nearly five hundred works by American composers including over ahundred world premières. Her Naxos recordings include the double GRAMMY®

Award winning disc of works by John Corigliano (8.559331) and GRAMMY®

nominated discs of works of Kenneth Fuchs, Franz Schubert, and Ottorino Respighi.For more information, please visit www.joannfalletta.com

Photo: Enid Bloch

Photo: Mark Dellas

572323 bk Suk 20/12/10 11:12 Page 4

Slavonic Dances of Dvorák. Sheer delight. In Zeyer’s stageplay, the death of the King brings a mortal reminder toRadúz and Mahulena. To achieve the effect, Suk relies onthe symbolism of eternal swans, portrayed in the thirdmovement, Funeral Music. The mood and setting is a clearreflection from the last act of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake,that is the scene where Prince Siegfried fears he has foreverlost his beloved Odette. To complete the suite, Sukprovides a rhapsodic finale titled Runa’s curse and how itwas overcome by true love. The music begins with harshheralding in the lead trumpet and lower brass, answered bystartled strings and martial rhythms in the percussion. Inthe play, while wandering aimlessly in the woods, PrinceRadúz has lost all living memory of Mahulena. But amystic desire leads him to a poplar tree, which he decidesto cut down for fire wood. He is not aware that the soul ofhis beloved Mahulena has taken refuge in the boughs, andas the sap begins to flow, her spirit regains his heart. Theyare united at last. After a series of colourful fragmentsreplayed as memoirs, the music returns to the love ariafrom the first movement, again in the solo violin, as thecurtain closes gently in E major.

Composed in 1903, Fantastic Scherzo in G minor,Op. 25, is among Suk’s most evocative works. After

Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin, and Mahler lateron, the scherzo became a genre unto its own. Translatedfrom Italian, scherzo means playful or joking, and isusually a bright-hearted scamper out for fun. But by thelate nineteenth century, the form was often ironic orurgent, at times even sinister. For his part, Suk conjured asymphonic canvas replete with impromptu vignettes. Thepiece is masterfully scored, with droll character rôles forthe various sections of the orchestra. Throughout thework, blithe fancy is on the wing, with a piquant middlesection for contrast in mood and tempo. The gambitbegins with wispy snippets in the forest reeds viawoodwinds in gnomic guise. In turn, middle strings andcellos intone one of those haunting Czech tunes whichendear and linger long in the heart. The central sectionoffers a brook-side interlude, with frills and trills, again inthe reeds and flutes. Low register strings add a tenderenchantment before the breezy energy of the opening isregained, again borne by the enchanted folk tune heardearlier. Brassy fanfares escort the closing coda into ashower of accented rhythms and sparkling color. Splendid.

Edward Yadzinski

Josef Suk took his earliest lessons on the violin and pianofrom his father, a local schoolmaster. By the age of elevenhe was ready for the Prague Conservatory, where, duringhis final year, he was fortunate to study composition underAntonín Dvorák, who had just joined the faculty. Theacquaintance was propitious, in that Suk later marriedDvorák’s daughter, Otilie. While at the Conservatory, Sukalso studied chamber music with the celebrated cellistHanus Wihan. In 1892 the latter recruited Suk to becomethe second violinist of the Czech Quartet (later renamed inhonour of Smetana). Remarkably, Suk maintained hismembership of the quartet for the next 41 years,performing in more than 4,000 concerts until hisretirement in 1933.

With encouragement from Dvorák and Brahms, therenowned publisher Simrock began to release editions ofSuk’s music, beginning with his Serenade for Strings, Op.6. The continued exposure placed Suk among theimportant composers of the modern Czech school. Theterm ‘modern’ is significant, in that Suk extended thenational banner well into the twentieth century. Althoughthe Czech school had been established by Smetana andDvorák, Suk fully embraced the breakaway trendsepitomized by the music of Richard Strauss in Berlin,Gustav Mahler in Vienna, and the Impressionist colours ofClaude Debussy in Paris. Moreover, Suk departed fromthe practice of relying on folk-music as a source for hisoriginal compositions.

Relatively late in his career, at the age of 48, Suk wasappointed as professor of composition at the PragueConservatory, where he taught several importantcomposers, including Bohuslav Martinuº. For many years,Suk also served as a member of the Czech Academy ofSciences. Suk’s compositions reveal a diverse collectionof works which are almost entirely tonal-poetic in nature,most of them for orchestra or piano.

A fine example of Suk’s amalgamated style is theFantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 24,completed in 1903. At the time, the genre of the orchestral

tone poem had gained wide favor in Europe, withexamples as diverse as Smetana’s Ma Vlast, RichardStrauss’s Don Juan and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.Moreover, evocative titles like Fantasy, Rhapsody orCaprice were very alluring, in part because they were notusually tied to a particular storyline. Rather, the musiccould suggest a progression of moods on the wing,carrying the listener to the realms of reverie and fancy.

Suk’s Fantasy begins with a robust introduction inveiled G minor, with a deft change of key into F sharpminor at the entrance of the solo violin. Indeed – asfantasy dictates – the music blends from romantic nuanceinto gusto and dash. Another character of the score is thepastoral ambiance of woodland effects, underscored bythe soloist with dance-like accents. At every point alongthe way, the virtuoso rôle for the solo violin is at oncespectacular and dramatic, tone-painted over a richorchestral landscape.

Fairy Tale, Op. 16 (Pohádka) is an orchestral suitederived from incidental music Suk wrote in 1898 for atheatre piece titled Radúz a Mahulena by the Czech poetJulius Zeyer (1841-1901). The allegorical storyline isbased on an old legend from Eastern Europe, which Zeyerspins through seven lavish scenes in four acts. In sum, thetale is about a dashing young prince Radúz, who desiresthe hand of princess Mahulena from a rival mountainkingdom. However, before they can achieve eternalhappiness, the would-be lovers must endure certain rites ofpassage demanded by a sorceress queen.

The music begins with a luxuriant portrait of Radúzand Mahulena, with idyllic colours set in deep-amberstrings and woodwinds. In the manner of Sheherazade, asolo violin offers a love song without words. But theforeboding challenges to Radúz and Mahulena capture thescene with daunting figures and pointed timbres, beforereverie returns for assurance. In the second movement Thegame of swans and peacocks, a bucolic setting is renderedwith folk-like tunes and countryside hues. Cast in sparklingB major, listeners will also note a tip-of-the-hat to the

Josef Suk (1874-1935)Fantasy in G minor • Fairy Tale • Fantastic Scherzo

8.572323 8.5723232 3

Michael Ludwig

Michael Ludwig enjoys a multi-faceted career as a soloist, recording artist, and chambermusician. A highly sought-after soloist, he has performed on four continents, includingappearances with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, BuffaloPhilharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, and London Symphony, collaborating with suchconductors as JoAnn Falletta, Sir Georg Solti, and John Williams among others.Engagements take him to Israel, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, and throughoutthe United States, and his critically acclaimed discography includes recordings ofBeethoven’s Violin Concerto and Dvorák’s Romance with the Virginia Symphony, JohnCorigliano’s Violin Concerto, ‘The Red Violin’ with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the worldpremière recording of Marcel Tyberg’s Piano Trio, and the violin concertos of Ernö vonDohnányi with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he hasshared the stage with acclaimed artists, including Christoph Eschenbach, WolfgangSawallisch, Yefim Bronfman, Sarah Chang, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. He performs on arare violin made in the late 1700s by the Cremonese master Lorenzo Storioni and aDominique Peccatte bow. For more information, please visit www.MichaelLudwig.com.Photo: Mark Dellas

572323 bk Suk 20/12/10 11:12 Page 2

Slavonic Dances of Dvorák. Sheer delight. In Zeyer’s stageplay, the death of the King brings a mortal reminder toRadúz and Mahulena. To achieve the effect, Suk relies onthe symbolism of eternal swans, portrayed in the thirdmovement, Funeral Music. The mood and setting is a clearreflection from the last act of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake,that is the scene where Prince Siegfried fears he has foreverlost his beloved Odette. To complete the suite, Sukprovides a rhapsodic finale titled Runa’s curse and how itwas overcome by true love. The music begins with harshheralding in the lead trumpet and lower brass, answered bystartled strings and martial rhythms in the percussion. Inthe play, while wandering aimlessly in the woods, PrinceRadúz has lost all living memory of Mahulena. But amystic desire leads him to a poplar tree, which he decidesto cut down for fire wood. He is not aware that the soul ofhis beloved Mahulena has taken refuge in the boughs, andas the sap begins to flow, her spirit regains his heart. Theyare united at last. After a series of colourful fragmentsreplayed as memoirs, the music returns to the love ariafrom the first movement, again in the solo violin, as thecurtain closes gently in E major.

Composed in 1903, Fantastic Scherzo in G minor,Op. 25, is among Suk’s most evocative works. After

Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin, and Mahler lateron, the scherzo became a genre unto its own. Translatedfrom Italian, scherzo means playful or joking, and isusually a bright-hearted scamper out for fun. But by thelate nineteenth century, the form was often ironic orurgent, at times even sinister. For his part, Suk conjured asymphonic canvas replete with impromptu vignettes. Thepiece is masterfully scored, with droll character rôles forthe various sections of the orchestra. Throughout thework, blithe fancy is on the wing, with a piquant middlesection for contrast in mood and tempo. The gambitbegins with wispy snippets in the forest reeds viawoodwinds in gnomic guise. In turn, middle strings andcellos intone one of those haunting Czech tunes whichendear and linger long in the heart. The central sectionoffers a brook-side interlude, with frills and trills, again inthe reeds and flutes. Low register strings add a tenderenchantment before the breezy energy of the opening isregained, again borne by the enchanted folk tune heardearlier. Brassy fanfares escort the closing coda into ashower of accented rhythms and sparkling color. Splendid.

Edward Yadzinski

Josef Suk took his earliest lessons on the violin and pianofrom his father, a local schoolmaster. By the age of elevenhe was ready for the Prague Conservatory, where, duringhis final year, he was fortunate to study composition underAntonín Dvorák, who had just joined the faculty. Theacquaintance was propitious, in that Suk later marriedDvorák’s daughter, Otilie. While at the Conservatory, Sukalso studied chamber music with the celebrated cellistHanus Wihan. In 1892 the latter recruited Suk to becomethe second violinist of the Czech Quartet (later renamed inhonour of Smetana). Remarkably, Suk maintained hismembership of the quartet for the next 41 years,performing in more than 4,000 concerts until hisretirement in 1933.

With encouragement from Dvorák and Brahms, therenowned publisher Simrock began to release editions ofSuk’s music, beginning with his Serenade for Strings, Op.6. The continued exposure placed Suk among theimportant composers of the modern Czech school. Theterm ‘modern’ is significant, in that Suk extended thenational banner well into the twentieth century. Althoughthe Czech school had been established by Smetana andDvorák, Suk fully embraced the breakaway trendsepitomized by the music of Richard Strauss in Berlin,Gustav Mahler in Vienna, and the Impressionist colours ofClaude Debussy in Paris. Moreover, Suk departed fromthe practice of relying on folk-music as a source for hisoriginal compositions.

Relatively late in his career, at the age of 48, Suk wasappointed as professor of composition at the PragueConservatory, where he taught several importantcomposers, including Bohuslav Martinuº. For many years,Suk also served as a member of the Czech Academy ofSciences. Suk’s compositions reveal a diverse collectionof works which are almost entirely tonal-poetic in nature,most of them for orchestra or piano.

A fine example of Suk’s amalgamated style is theFantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 24,completed in 1903. At the time, the genre of the orchestral

tone poem had gained wide favor in Europe, withexamples as diverse as Smetana’s Ma Vlast, RichardStrauss’s Don Juan and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.Moreover, evocative titles like Fantasy, Rhapsody orCaprice were very alluring, in part because they were notusually tied to a particular storyline. Rather, the musiccould suggest a progression of moods on the wing,carrying the listener to the realms of reverie and fancy.

Suk’s Fantasy begins with a robust introduction inveiled G minor, with a deft change of key into F sharpminor at the entrance of the solo violin. Indeed – asfantasy dictates – the music blends from romantic nuanceinto gusto and dash. Another character of the score is thepastoral ambiance of woodland effects, underscored bythe soloist with dance-like accents. At every point alongthe way, the virtuoso rôle for the solo violin is at oncespectacular and dramatic, tone-painted over a richorchestral landscape.

Fairy Tale, Op. 16 (Pohádka) is an orchestral suitederived from incidental music Suk wrote in 1898 for atheatre piece titled Radúz a Mahulena by the Czech poetJulius Zeyer (1841-1901). The allegorical storyline isbased on an old legend from Eastern Europe, which Zeyerspins through seven lavish scenes in four acts. In sum, thetale is about a dashing young prince Radúz, who desiresthe hand of princess Mahulena from a rival mountainkingdom. However, before they can achieve eternalhappiness, the would-be lovers must endure certain rites ofpassage demanded by a sorceress queen.

The music begins with a luxuriant portrait of Radúzand Mahulena, with idyllic colours set in deep-amberstrings and woodwinds. In the manner of Sheherazade, asolo violin offers a love song without words. But theforeboding challenges to Radúz and Mahulena capture thescene with daunting figures and pointed timbres, beforereverie returns for assurance. In the second movement Thegame of swans and peacocks, a bucolic setting is renderedwith folk-like tunes and countryside hues. Cast in sparklingB major, listeners will also note a tip-of-the-hat to the

Josef Suk (1874-1935)Fantasy in G minor • Fairy Tale • Fantastic Scherzo

8.572323 8.5723232 3

Michael Ludwig

Michael Ludwig enjoys a multi-faceted career as a soloist, recording artist, and chambermusician. A highly sought-after soloist, he has performed on four continents, includingappearances with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, BuffaloPhilharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, and London Symphony, collaborating with suchconductors as JoAnn Falletta, Sir Georg Solti, and John Williams among others.Engagements take him to Israel, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, and throughoutthe United States, and his critically acclaimed discography includes recordings ofBeethoven’s Violin Concerto and Dvorák’s Romance with the Virginia Symphony, JohnCorigliano’s Violin Concerto, ‘The Red Violin’ with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the worldpremière recording of Marcel Tyberg’s Piano Trio, and the violin concertos of Ernö vonDohnányi with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he hasshared the stage with acclaimed artists, including Christoph Eschenbach, WolfgangSawallisch, Yefim Bronfman, Sarah Chang, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. He performs on arare violin made in the late 1700s by the Cremonese master Lorenzo Storioni and aDominique Peccatte bow. For more information, please visit www.MichaelLudwig.com.Photo: Mark Dellas

572323 bk Suk 20/12/10 11:12 Page 2

Josef

SUKFairy TaleFantasy in G minor

Fantastic Scherzo

Michael Ludwig, Violin

Buffalo PhilharmonicOrchestra

JoAnn Falletta8.572323 4

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra was foundedin 1935 and makes its home in Kleinhans MusicHall, a National Historic Landmark with aninternational reputation as one of the greatestconcert halls in the United States. Through thedecades the orchestra has grown in stature under anumber of distinguished conductors includingWilliam Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss,Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, SemyonBychkov, and Maximiano Valdès. As Buffalo’scultural ambassador, the BPO has performedacross the United States, Canada and Europe,including concerts at Lincoln Center, KennedyCenter, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’sDavies Hall and 22 appearances in Carnegie Hall.

The orchestra’s European tour included two sold-out performances in Vienna’s Musikverein, and concerts in Milan,Geneva, Zurich and Frankfurt, among other venues. The BPO performs 120 concerts annually and is heard bymillions on radio broadcasts across the United States and beyond on American Public Media’s Performance Today.For more information, please visit www.bpo.org

JoAnn Falletta

JoAnn Falletta currently serves as music director of both the Buffalo Philharmonicand the Virginia Symphony and has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras inNorth America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, SouthAmerica and Africa. Recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the ArtsConductors Award, winner of the Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditsonand Bruno Walter conducting awards, JoAnn Falletta has also received ten awardsfrom the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) and serves on theU.S. National Council on the Arts. A champion of American music, she haspresented nearly five hundred works by American composers including over ahundred world premières. Her Naxos recordings include the double GRAMMY®

Award winning disc of works by John Corigliano (8.559331) and GRAMMY®

nominated discs of works of Kenneth Fuchs, Franz Schubert, and Ottorino Respighi.For more information, please visit www.joannfalletta.com

Photo: Enid Bloch

Photo: Mark Dellas

572323 bk Suk 20/12/10 11:12 Page 4

CMYK

8.570833

8.572236 8.572303

Also available

8.572041

Encouraged by Brahms and Dvorák while embracing the innovative influences of Debussy, Mahlerand Richard Strauss, Josef Suk ranked among the most important composers of the RomanticCzech school. Suk’s Fantasy carries the listener into the realms of reverie with its virtuosic soloviolin and rich orchestration. The magical story of the romance of a dashing young prince, Radúz,who desires the hand of princess Mahulena from a rival mountain kingdom, lies behind Suk’sluxuriantly orchestrated suite Fairy Tale. The Fantastic Scherzo is one of his most evocative works,with a haunting Czech tune on middle strings and cellos that lingers long in the heart. DDD

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Josef

SUK(1874-1935)

Michael Ludwig, Violin*Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra • JoAnn Falletta

1 Fantasy in G minor, Op. 24* 23:28

Pohádka (Fairy Tale), Op. 16 30:392 I. O verném milování Radúze a Mahuleny

a jejich strastech (About the constant love of Radúz and Mahulena and their trials) 11:07

3 II. Intermezzo: Hra na labute a pávy(Folk Dance: The game of swans and peacocks) 3:25

4 III. Intermezzo: Smutecní hudba (Funeral Music) 7:275 IV. Runy kletba a jak byla láskou zrusena

(Runa’s curse and how it was overcome by true love) 8:40

6 Fantastické scherzo, Op. 25 15:06

Recorded at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York, USA, on 3rd and 4th May, 2010Produced, engineered and edited by Tim Handley

Publishers: Kalmus reprint of N. Simrock (tracks 1-5); Lucks reprint of Serenissima (track 6)Cover photograph by Nataliya Lukhanina (Dreamstime.com)

Playing Time

69:13

SUK

: Fairy Tale • F

antastic ScherzoNAXOS

SUK

: Fairy Tale • F

antastic ScherzoNAXOS

8.572323

8.572323