01] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 4 No 14 Poem
02] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 3 No 20 Andantino In B Flat Minor
03] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 1 No 17 Andantino In F Major
04] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 1 No 14 Molto Agitato In D Minor
05] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 4 No 26 Molto Moderato Ed Espressivo In D
06] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 5 No 79 Allegro In D Minor
07] No 38 Lento In G Minor
08] No 39 Lento Con Extrema Espressione In G Major
09] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 1 No 23 Appassionato In E Minor
10] No 17 Lento In B Major
11] No 19 Quasi Presto E Con Fuoco In E Minor
12] No 3 Lento Assai In A Minor
13] No 20 Con Moto In C Major
14] No 33 Agitato In C Minor
15] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 1 No 8 Adagio In E Flat Major
16] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 4 No 36 Andantino In B Flat Major
17] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op44 Book 2 No 12 Andantino In B Flat Minor
18] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 1 No 36 Andante Amoroso In B Flat Major
19] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 2 No 41 Allegretto Agitato In G Minor
20] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 10 No 145 Tempo Di Polacca In D Major
21] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 1 No 24 Lento In G Minor
22] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 44 Book 4 No 27 Andante Con Moto In B Flat Major
23] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 6 No 93 Con Moto In B Flat Minor
24] No 6 Adagio In A Flat Major
25] No 10 Con Sentimento In F Minor
26] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 41 Book 3 No 9 Allegro Zefiroso E Leggiero In A F~1
27] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 57 Book 2 No 16 Allegro Con Fuoco In D Minor
28] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 10 No 146 Andante In B Flat Minor
29] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 47 Book 4 No 64 Moderato In E Minor
30] Moods Impressions And Reminiscences Op 57 Book 1 No 6 Moderato In E Minor

Hitomi Ito – piano

Fibich was the third of the leading Czech composers of the last half of the nineteenth century, after Smetana and Dvorák. His music is strongly Romantic and often intensely personal. Less nationalistic than was fashionable for much of his later life and early posterity, his works have only recently begun to meet a revival of interest.

Fibich's mother was from a cultured Viennese family, while his father was a Czech forestry official. He was born in a remote rural town and later moved to another, Liban. All his life he retained a love of nature. Fibich was home-schooled by his mother until he was nine; she also taught him piano, and then referred him to a local priest, Frantisek Cerny, for studies in music theory. He later attended a private music school in Prague; by the end of his schooling, Fibich had written over 50 compositions. Most were piano pieces and songs, but some were more ambitious, including an attempt at music for the final part of Romeo and Juliet and a symphony sketched out on four open staves. In 1865 he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, studying with Ignaz Moscheles and others. He returned to Bohemia in 1870, lived with his parents a year until he had turned 21, and then moved to Prague.

He began composing full-time, writing an opera, Bukovin, to a libretto by the same writer responsible for Smetana's The Bartered Bride. In 1873 he married Ruzena Hanusova and took a position directing a choir in Vilnius, Lithuania. His tone poem of that year, Zaboj, Slavoj, and Ludek, deeply influenced Smetana's nascent Má Vlast. Soon the newlyweds were expecting twins, but Fibich suffered the loss of his wife, her sister, and both babies over the next two years.

Fibich took a job at the Provisional Theater in Prague, and married a third Hanusova sister, Betty, in 1875. They had a son, Richard, in 1876. This baby survived, but the marriage did not. Finding that his theatrical duties took him away from composition, Fibich gave them up in favor of a position at the Russian Orthodox Church in Prague in 1878. He wrote a fairly successful opera, Blanik, and became interested in the unusual musical form of the melodrama. He came to be one of the most successful composers in that genre.

In 1881 Fibich resigned from his church position and devoted himself full-time to composing and teaching. Soon he fell in love with a pupil, a singer named Anezka Schulzová, and eventually abandoned his wife and son for her. Miss Schulzova was a well-read young woman who directed Fibich toward texts with a feminist orientation. Indeed, of his last four operas, she wrote the texts for three of them. Sarka (1897), about a Czech female military leader, was his most successful work, in part due to its patriotic theme.

Fibich also began writing an immense series of short piano works called Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences, composed between 1891 and 1899. They form virtually a musical diary of his affair with Schulzova, and often they are exceptionally intimate and passionate. In 1899 he returned to a position as producer at the Provisional Theater, now called the National Theater. He died unexpectedly of a kidney infection in 1900. ---Joseph Stevenson

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1. Comenius, Festive Overture, op.34    [0:11:07.25]
2. Záboj, Slavoj and Ludék, Symphonic poem, op.37    [0:16:36.00]
3. Toman and the Wood Nymph, Symphonic poem, op.49    [0:12:56.00]
4. The Fall of Arkona, Opera Overture, op.60    [0:12:34.05]

Prague Symphony Orchestra
Vladimir Valek – conductor

Composer Zdenek Fibich, Dvorák's near contemporary, has until the last few years been known mostly for a large set of piano pieces he wrote toward the end of his life, programmatically depicting in sometimes explicit detail his relationship with a young piano student. Fibich also wrote a good deal of orchestral music.

Fibich was more oriented toward Germany than was Dvorák, but he seems on surer ground with more nationalistic themes: Toman a lesní panna (Tomas and the Wood Nymph), Op. 49, adumbrates the magical realism of Dvorák's later works, and Záboj, Slavoj, and Ludek, Op. 37, based on a story in an old Czech manuscript, is said to have influenced Smetana's Má vlast. Vesna (Spring), Op. 13, is a short, luminous interlude that could open any symphony concert profitably. The music is uneven, but in truth so is much of Dvorák's output, and these strong performances might cause more listeners to give Fibich's music a second look. --- James Manheim, Rovi

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CD1
1. Symphony No. 1 in F major, Op. 17: I. Allegro moderato	14:42
2. Symphony No. 1 in F major, Op. 17: II. Scherzo and Trio: Allegro assai 	4:28
3. Symphony No. 1 in F major, Op. 17: III. Adagio non troppo	5:51
4. Symphony No. 1 in F major, Op. 17: IV. Finale: Allegro con fuoco e vivace	9:20	
5. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 38: I. Allegro moderato	8:48
6. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 38: II. Adagio	7:25	
7. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 38: III. Scherzo and Trio: Presto	8:32
8. Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 38: IV. Finale: Allegro energico	8:43

CD2
1. Symphony No. 3 in E minor, Op. 53: I. Allegro inquieto	10:59
2. Symphony No. 3 in E minor, Op. 53: II. Allegro con fuoco - Adagio	8:40
3. Symphony No. 3 in E minor, Op. 53: III. Scherzo and Trio: Vivo e grazioso	7:07
4. Symphony No. 3 in E minor, Op. 53: IV. Allegro maestoso - Allegro vivace	10:41

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi  -conductor

Fibich is the lesser known of the nationalist Czech composers writing in the latter part of the 19th Century yet his music is as colourful, melodic and passionate as any works by his compatriots Dvorák and Smetana. It is full of joie-de -vivre. Fibich was a generation younger than Smetana and nine years younger than Dvorák. His music is neither firmly Germanic or overtly nationalistic Czech, but it embraces both influences in equal measure.

Composition of the First Symphony in F Major commenced while the composer was still at Leipzig Conservatory in 1877 but it was not performed until 1883. The work is genial and brims with sparkling melodies. One quickly notices that Fibich prefers to write faster music and Maestro Järvi propels the music strongly forward. The first movement is considerable, lasting some 15 minutes. Another Fibich device that one soon notices is his predilection for sequences (favoured also by Elgar - and in places, in these symphonies, Fibich's music does sound very Elgarian). The music is also very well constructed and balanced so that one's ears are captivated by the sheer elegance of its ebb and flow. There is a fresh out-of-doors feel about it too - one can imagine Alpine pastures (the CD booklet cover illustration is therefore apt) and village celebrations with folk dancing. The fast and furious second movement continues this celebration with lively folk music spiced with quasi-fugal elements. The third Adagio movement begins as though it is a dignified and refined minuet before there are darker musings in the lower strings with self-important commentary by the brass. This is a more deeply felt movement, contrapuntally rich with impressive writing for divided strings and passionate climaxes. The finale returns to faster material but more moods are explored. The music is strong, confident, assertive; and there is more of a feeling of national pride. Some of the material echoes folk melodies used by Smetana and Dvorák.

Fibich's Second and Third Symphonies are amongst his finest works and both were written at the time of his affair with one of his pupils - the talented but headstrong Anezka Schulzová, and the music seems to celebrate the union. Earlier, Fibich's first wife had died and he married one of her sister's only to abandon her and his children in favour of Schulzová. From 1892 to 1899 he kept a musical diary charting his affair in the form of piano Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences (a selection of which is available on CHANDOS 9381). Melodies from this huge collection informed much of the music of Fibich's last years. Some of these melodies are heard in the Symphony No 2 in E flat major which begins in a grand sweeping, almost Brucknerian manner before the music swells passionately and becomes rather more Brahmsian. Gentler music follows which is juxtapositioned with more relentless cantering figures that suggest a hunting scene - Fibich pursuing his ideal? The prevailing mood is of elation and good humour. The early part of the Adagio is very beautiful - reminiscent of both Brahms and, very strongly, of Elgar with particularly appealing mid-lower string writing. The central section of the movement returns to folk material - contrasting the hesitant with the emphatic; darker material adding a wider perspective. Trumpets herald the Scherzo and & Trio: Presto movement - another light-hearted, high spirited piece pausing midway for a more introspective slow dance but in the main it just bounces and bubbles along. The finale opens vigorously with a very infectious melody, and it dances along but pauses to include slower, more graceful, feminine material and ardent, yearningly romantic themes along the way. Heart-on-sleeve music devotees will wallow in this symphony.

The Symphony No 3 in E minor is written from the heart too but instead of treating it as a thematically unified cycle, Fibich progresses from minor to major - from (relative) darkness to light. Indeed the music, this time, has a Mahlerian feel about it. It begins mysteriously and a little menacingly but it is impossible to repress Fibich for long and the music soon bubbles along. Happier, swiftly paced, dotted rhythms usher in more lyrical and warmly romantic material yet small clouds persist in the background. Larger, grander, more nationalistic issues are also covered. The second Allegro movement has another stately opening and a dialogue between dictatorial strings and pleading woodwinds ensues. There is the beginnings of what one feels would have been a glorious Brahmsian heart-felt theme which is left frustratingly undeveloped. Again Elgar's nobilmente writing comes to mind in this lovely movement. Once more, I was taken with the wonderfully balanced polytonal writing and beautifully symmetrical structure. The Scherzo & Trio: Vivo e grazioso third movement is an untroubled and sunny Mendelssohnian dance with some interesting effects. The finale returns to the mood of the first movement with another dark, eerie, brooding opening but again Fibich soon asserts more optimistic and heroic material. There are surging romantic melodies aplenty and this marvellous cycle of symphonies ends in glorious affirmation.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra give virtuoso readings of all three symphonies which are recorded in Chandos's best sound. ---Ian Lace, musicweb-international.com

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1. String Quatet No. 1 in A major: Allegro grazioso
2. String Quatet No. 1 in A major: Andante semplice
3. String Quatet No. 1 in A major: Allegretto
4. String Quatet No. 1 in A major: Allegro
5. String Quartet in G major, Op. 8: Allegro moderato
6. String Quartet in G major, Op. 8: Adagio
7. String Quartet in G major, Op. 8: Scherzo. Allegro scherzando
8. String Quartet in G major, Op. 8: Allegro
9. Theme and variations for string quartet in B flat major

Panocha Quartet:
Jiří Panocha (violin), 
Pavel Zejfart (violin),
Miroslav Sehnoutek (viola), 
Jaroslav Kulhan (cello).

With a little delay following the issue of a complete set of violin works, Supraphon is now coming with the sequel to that title in the "hommage Zdenek Fibich" (1850 - 1900) series, presenting a new recording of the complete quartet output of this Czech neo-Romantic composer who has so far failed to get all the interest he would rightfully deserve. Although modest in terms of size, Fibich´s chamber production, whose crucial part was created during the 1870s, conveys an eloquent message about the versatility of his talent, as well as about his strong affinity for Czech folk music: Fibich was the first Czech composer to use the polka - a Czech folk dance - in the Scherzo of his A major Quartet. The considerable creative challenge involved in this project was taken up here by the experienced Panocha Quartet, which was once again, after its account of Dvorak´s early quartets, offered a golden opportunity to place its high artistic repute in the service of asserting music which may lie on the margins of the mainstream repertoire, yet whose values are thoroughly unmistakeable. --- supraphon.com

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