Czech composer Zdenek Fibich is best known for a lengthy series of short piano works called Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences that chronicled his obsession, often in very physical terms, with his student Anezka Schulzová. His larger works have had their champions in Czech lands, as well, and they fit well with the Naxos label's emphasis on neglected Eastern European music. The results on the label's second album of Fibich's orchestral music are mixed but intriguing. Fibich was torn between Czech nationalism and the ...
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Czech composer Zdenek Fibich is best known for a lengthy series of short piano works called Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences that chronicled his obsession, often in very physical terms, with his student Anezka Schulzová. His larger works have had their champions in Czech lands, as well, and they fit well with the Naxos label's emphasis on neglected Eastern European music. The results on the label's second album of Fibich's orchestral music are mixed but intriguing. Fibich was torn between Czech nationalism and the German-Austrian tradition, and he probably engaged more deeply with Wagner's music than any other Eastern European of his time. Yet he was also steeped in Classical forms. As might be expected, this makes the Symphony No. 2 in E flat major into something of a mishmash, but for the most part it lies somewhere between Schumann and Dvorák. The two pieces given the designation Idyll for orchestra are all but unknown and do a more thorough and more inventive job of integrating Wagner with...
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