Suk, Josef

Josef Suk – Serenade op. 6 in E flat Major for String Orchestra

(b. Køeèovice, 4 January 1874 – d. Bene?ov, 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 Antonin 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 Janacek’s (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 Martinù (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.
Suk’s Serenade op. 6 was composed in 1892-3 and is, for all intents and purposes, the final student composition that the composer wrote under the tutelage ofAntonín Dvorák. Concerned that Suk favored the minor mode almost to the exclusion of major keys, Dvorák gave Suk the assignment to compose a work using only major tonalities. The result was the Serenade, a charming work whose four movements are set in Eb Major, Bb Major, G Major, and Eb Major respectively.

In the first movement, Andante con moto, Suk utilizes a very standard late romantic approach to sonata form in which the second tonal area of the exposition (più mosso) is pitched a major third removed from the beginning, in this case in G Major. The same approach is taken in the second movement, Allegro ma non troppo e grazioso, in which the modulation between the primary and secondary tonal areas of the exposition proceeds a major third downwards from Bb Major to Gb Major. In both movements there is unique thematic material that is associated with each of the two tonal areas of the expositions.

In the Serenade we find Suk at his lyrical best. Like his mentor Dvorák, Suk combines refined elements with those of a more folk origin. This is exemplified in the second movement in which the graceful waltz of the opening section contrasts with the more Ländler-like quality of the Gb Major Poco meno mosso section.

Even though it was Dvorák goal to lessen the minor-key brooding nature of much of his student’s early works, Suk nevertheless managed to imbue the G Major third movement Adagio with a sense of gravitas that contrasts sharply with the previous two movements. Despite the fact that the Serenade is a remarkably mature composition it is important to keep in mind that Suk was only eighteen years old at the time of its composition. The work, therefore, exhibits the heightened emotionalism and angst of late adolescence as well as a certain Slavic melancholia. Again, in the third movement Suk modulates from the tonic tonality (G Major) to a third below (E Major).

In the fourth and final movement, Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo presto, Suk gives much more of the thematic material to the lower strings than in the previous three movements. The contrast between the slowly stated theme in the lower strings and the rapidly articulated broken chords in the strings gives an impression of contrapuntal complexity, even though this is not the case. The quasi-contrapuntal feel to the movement is further enhanced the alternation of staccato passages between different groupings of instruments. As would be expected in a final allegro movement, Suk is less harmonically adventurous in this movement and transition from the tonic to dominant tonalities with much emphasis placed on the secondary dominant. Transitions between sections are effected for the most part by utilizing sequences as modulatory devices. The virtuosic nature of the fourth movement attests not only to Suk’s mastery of compositional techniques but also to his prowess as a string performer of the first rank.

The first performance of the Serenade took place in Tábor, Czechoslovakia on December 17, 1893 with Suk conducting. This performance, however, consisted of only two movements of the composition. The premiere performance of the complete Serenade was not until February 25, 1894 at the Rudolfinum in Prague with Antonin Bennewitz conducting the Prague Conservatory Orchestra.

© William Grim (2006)

For performance material please contact Benjamin Musikverlage, Hamburg. Reprint of a copy from the collection Phillip Brookes, Shropshire.

Read preface / Vorwort > HERE