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Review by JJ August 8, 2009 (4 of 7 found this review helpful)
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Death is at the heart of this heartbreaking work. Death in its symbolic representation with the angle Asrael, who makes several appearances, such as the one in which it possesses “four faces and four thousand wings, and where its entire body is covered with tongues and eyes, whose number corresponds to that of all those living on Earth.” His labor is immense: “Constantly noting down in a great book the names of men upon their birth and erasing them upon their death, he will be the last to die.” The Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk composed his Opus 27 during the years 1905-1906. Unique in its tormented, funereal, and reverential expressivity, the score is in five movements, the last two of which are adagios evoking the beloved figure of his deceased wife, Otilie, who was the daughter of Anton Dvorak. It is no surprise that Claus Peter Flor and the Malasia Philharmonic Orchestra offer us here a modern-day reference on SACD, of Suk’s masterpiece. Lay aside then the recent Ashkenazy, and fully savor this interpretation, inspired from beginning to end, which is an intense and vibrant musical joy that makes an exemplary sound recording into one which is quite simply indispensable.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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