Suk, Josef

Preface

Josef Suk – Zrání (Ripening) Symphonic Poem for Large Orchestra, Op. 34

(b. Krecowitz, 4 January 1874 — d. Benesov, 29 May 1935)

 

Preface
Josef Suk was a renowned violinist and one of the most important Czech composers of the generation to follow Antonín Dvorák (1841–1904). He grew up in the Bohemian city of Krecowitz where his father, also named Josef Suk (1827–1913), was choirmaster and with whom the younger Suk studied violin, piano and organ. Entering the Prague Conservatory at the age of 11, Suk studied violin with Antonín Bennewitz (1833–1926) and composition with Dvorák. Suk was Dvorák’s favorite student and eventually ended up marrying the latter’s daughter Otylka (1878–1905). In 1891 Suk, along with Karel Hoffman (1872–1936), Oskar Nedbal (1874–1930), and Otto Berger (1873–1897), founded the Czech String Quartet, which remained in existence with relatively few personnel changes until 1933. During his 40 years with the ensemble Suk performed in over 4000 concerts internationally. The composer’s travels had a profound impact on his evolving compositional style due to exposure to a wide variety of new music. The Czech Quartet also performed much new music and was the ensemble that gave the premiere performances of Leos Janaceks (1854–1928) Quartets No. 1 (Kreutzer Sonata) and No. 2 (Intimate Letters).

Given Suk’s prominence as a chamber performer, it is surprising that he was almost exclusively a composer of symphonic music. In addition, unlike his fellow contemporary Czech composers, Suk was relatively little interested in folk music. Suk’s compositional style was highly eclectic and unique, demonstrating influences from as far afield as Dvorák, Bedrich Smetana (1824–1884), Claude Debussy (1862–1918) and Richard Strauss (1864–1949). In his later works, Suk’s harmonies become so complex that they even approach Stravinskian bi-tonality. Suk’s compositional oeuvre includes two symphonies and several overtures, piano miniatures, several string quartets, piano trios and related works, and a number of choruses and solo songs. Although he composed no operas, Suk’s incidental music to Julius Zeyer’s (1841–1901) play Radúz and Mahulena was highly regarded for its pathos and introspective nature.

Although Suk left behind a healthy corpus of musical compositions, his death at the relatively young age of 61 and his time-consuming performance schedule undoubtedly prevented the completion of many compositional projects. Added to the restraints on Suk’s time was his appointment as professor of composition at the Prague Conservatory in 1922 and his later serving as rector at the same institution. Among Suk’s composition students were Bohuslav Martinu (1890–1959) and Karel Reiner (1910–1979). Suk’s grandson, also named Josef Suk (b. 1929), has been one of the most renowned violinists of the past century.
Ripening is a tone poem that Suk began to work on in 1912 and completed in 1917. It was conceived as a type of musical autobiography. As such, it falls within the late Romantic tradition of autobiographical tone poems including Franz Liszt’s Les Preludes and Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. The title of the tone poem and an important source of inspiration for its music was the poem Zrání by the poet Antonín Sova (1864–1928), one of the foremost Czech literary figures of the past century and an important exponent of symbolism.

Suk essentially conceived his tone poem as a mature artist looking back over his life. At first, he recalls the bliss of youth; then there is the sadness at the death of loved ones, which is followed by a struggle against fate, and a concluding reconciliation and triumph. The four-part subdivision of the work, then, follows the overall conception of the traditional ‘Four Ages of Man’: infancy, youth, maturity and old age.

Suk strengthens the autobiographical connotations of the work by quoting from an earlier work of his, the incidental music to Radúz and Mahulena. This work was concerned with the ill-fated romance of young lovers and was notable for its ‘Death motif’, a melodic succession of two tritones (C-F#-G#-D). This motif was also used in Suk’s Asrael-Symphony and was used to represent the deaths of the composer’s wife Otylka and father-in-law Dvorák.

Harmonically speaking, Ripening displays a great deal of the influence of musical impressionism. Its single movement format, however, is well within the parameters established by Liszt and Strauss. Suk employs an orchestra of Mahlerian dimensions: 3 each of the winds, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 6 offstage trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, a large percussion section, 2 harps, carillon, celeste, piano, 32 violins, 14 violas, 12 cellos, 10 basses and a wordless female chorus. The chorus appears only at the contemplative conclusion of the work, perhaps an allusion to the ‘Ewig-Weibliche’, in this case being the composer’s beloved Otylka, not the Gretchen of Goethe’s Faust.

Ripening has always been deeply imbedded in the Czech consciousness as a composition of national importance. Its premiere took place in Prague on October 30, 1918 only two days after the proclamation of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Talich (1883–1961) conducted the combined forces of the Czech Philharmonic and National Theatre Orchestras in a triumphal performance that established his credentials as a conductor of international importance. The artistic and critical success of Ripening helped to spur on Suk in his work on his final symphonic composition, Epilogue. Today, Ripening is generally viewed as being the third segment of a meta-compositional tetralogy including Asrael, Summer Tale and Epilogue.

Not in vain have you storms
Ever gone over the Cape of the highest hopes,
You starless sky covered with clouds,
have helped bearing cruel flashes of lightning.
Through all dangers of the whirlwind
You were chased by hundreds,
it hummed and it whistled
in horrible language of unbound sadness
weeping and longing for happiness.
With destruction you have borne the fertile leaven—
And now, as the time passed:
Whatever was strong had to dun to the light of the golden sun,
And in order to get the grain it has grown,
when it will be ripe to be mown—
Whatever ripened was not to know anything about harm:
And therefore there reigns such an immense calm—
And I listen, and I peer into the brightness.
Thousands of stars twinkle in rows in the sky, and I look at them in bliss.
And I fathom the depths into which time has gone down
Ah! There is redemption in such a calm—
In ripening, in full ripening may come,
Oh, sweet night after the day.

© William Grim (2006)

For performance material please contact Supraphon, Prague. Reprint of a copy from the collection