Suk: A Summer's Tale; Prague – review

A Summer's Tale is one of three symphonic poems that Josef Suk composed in the wake of his great Asrael Symphony, which he had completed in 1906 as a memorial to his wife and to his father-in-law Dvor˘ák. Jirí Be˘lohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra made a fine recording of the second poem in the trilogy, Ripening, for Chandos two years ago, but A Summer's Tale, first performed in 1909, is more expansive work, in five movements lasting about 55 minutes in this performance. The language is highly wrought – late-romantic, with just occasional hints that Suk may have been aware of the musical world that Debussy had revealed – and Suk's models were presumably were Dvor˘ák's late symphonic poems. But Suk's efforts lack the conciseness and the dramatic instincts of his mentor's. neither A Summer's Tale nor Prague, an evocation of the city and its history completed in 1904, really justifies its length, however sumptuous and grandiose the effects.