Antonín Dvořák: Rusalka Fantasy (Orchestral Suite from the Opera Rusalka; arr. Tomáš Ille / Manfred Honeck) | Czech Philharmonic & Manfred Honeck | George Enescu Festival | 31.08.2023 | Romanian Athenaeum
Recorded from public broadcast. Enjoy!
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It was as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic that I first encountered this wonderful opera, Rusalka, at the Vienna State Opera. At the time, I played it under the great Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Maestro Vaclav Neumann and the fantastic ideas and melodies immediately set me on fire. It was at this same moment that I felt the desire to bring this music to the concert hall. Not being able to find an arrangement, I decided to create my own suite many years later, together with the young Czech composer, Tomáš Ille, who brilliantly carried out the technical work. Dvorak wrote the opera in 1900, which followed his time in New York and to no one’s great surprise, one can find allusions to the New World in Rusalka.
Rusalka is probably the best known Czech opera besides The Bartered Bride by Smetana. The melodies are so rich in number and beauty that they could have easily filled a larger suite and, at the same time, could have also been a part of Dvorák’s most famous dances and symphonies.
The Dvorák Rusalka Fantasy is the third opera for which I have conceptualized a suite, following first the Janácek Jenufa Suite and then the Strauss Elektra Rhapsody. For me, constructing a suite means attempting to transmit the atmosphere and scope of the opera--and it is for this reason that the result is not smaller single numbers, but rather, a through-composed and integral piece, almost akin to a tone poem. There is no question that any suite will forever remain incomplete. And yet, this very fact should not prevent us from breathing new life into these great works and giving the concert audience a colorful taste of this fantastic music.
--MANFRED HONECK
31 мар 2024
