If Josef Bohuslav Foerster is remembered at all, he's remembered for his Fourth Symphony in C minor, an occasionally recorded Mahlerian masterpiece called "Easter Eve" that starts in the depths and ends on the heights. But most of the rest of his vast output -- Foerster lived to 92 and he composed until he was nearly 80 -- remains unrecorded terra incognito. Of his six operas, only Eva has kept a place in the repertoire and was even recorded back in 1982 with Frantisek Vajnar leading the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. ...
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If Josef Bohuslav Foerster is remembered at all, he's remembered for his Fourth Symphony in C minor, an occasionally recorded Mahlerian masterpiece called "Easter Eve" that starts in the depths and ends on the heights. But most of the rest of his vast output -- Foerster lived to 92 and he composed until he was nearly 80 -- remains unrecorded terra incognito. Of his six operas, only Eva has kept a place in the repertoire and was even recorded back in 1982 with Frantisek Vajnar leading the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. This 2004 recording with Jaroslav Kyzlink leading the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra is in nearly all ways an improvement on the earlier recording. Where Vajnar is committed, Kyzlink is dedicated and where the Prague Radio Symphony sounds like a second-rate Czech orchestra doing its best, the Krakow Philharmonic sounds like a first-rate Polish orchestra doing its best. Only the earlier all-Czech singers' slightly more confident diction beats the later, half-Czech singers' slightly...
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