Commissioned by the Czech Philharmonic, Bärenreiter Praha has produced new performance material for two orchestral works by Josef Suk (1874–1935) – “Epilogue” op. 37 and “The Legend of Dead Victors Op 35b” (Legenda o mrtvých vítězích)”.
“Epilogue”, a 40-minute symphonic work in one movement, draws freely on three orchestral works with which the work forms a tetralogy: the Symphony “Asrael” op. 27, “Pohádka léta” (A summer’s tale) op. 29 and “Zrání” (Ripening) op. 34. In Epilogue, Suk expands the scoring with soprano, baritone and bass soloists, plus a small and a large mixed chorus. The large musical fresco is characterised by complex counterpoint, exceptional care in the arrangement of all details, but also through a clear division into five sections following on from each other attacca; despite their harmonic experimentation and bold dissonances, these do not stray beyond the stylistic framework of fading late Romanticism. The separate sections are not marked in the score; at the time of the premiere, what was undoubtedly an authentic “analysis” by the composer’s biographer Jan Miroslav Květ was published in the periodical Tempo (I. Steps – Flight – Hopelessness, II. Mothers’ Song, III. From Eternity to Eternity, IV. Mysterious Amazement and Agitation, V. The Pilgrim and Bringer of Consolation).
The basic conception of “Epilogue” is a quotation from Psalm 23 (in the Czech translation from the Kralice Bible), initially formulated as a question: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil?”, which is then followed at the end by the comforting answer: “I will fear no evil; for you are with me.”
For the final chorus, Suk borrowed the ending of the religious drama “Under the Apple Tree” (Pod jabloní) by Julius Zeyer, for which he had previously written the stage music, and had the text adapted.
Suk worked on “Epilogue” from 1920 to 1929, and later until 1933, when the work was premiered by the Czech Philharmonic under Václav Talich. The orchestra had planned a performance of the work under Jakub Hrůša for January 2022, but this had to be postponed at short notice because of the pandemic and will now take place on 30 April 2025.
Another work from Josef Suk’s last creative period is the “The Legend of Dead Victors” (Legenda o mrtvých vítězích) op. 35b. (Suk also gave the opus number 35 to two further “patriotic” works, the “Meditation” for string quartet and the Sokol festival march “Towards a New Life” (V nový život) op. 35c, with the subtitle “Commemoration for Large Orchestra”). The composition was commissioned by the Ministry for National Defence in honour of the Czechoslovak legionnaires who fell in the years 1919–20 during the enthusiastic construction of the newly-founded republic. The Legend does not disguise its political purpose and its somewhat pompous, formal dimension. At the same time it is a rare fruit of Suk’s orchestral mastery during his late period, and can be used dramaturgically “simply as music”. “The Legend of Dead Victors” was premiered in 1924. Jakub Hrůša, who is recording Suk’s complete orchestral works with the Czech Philharmonic for the Pentatone label, will perform it in February 2026 in a concert.
The two new sets of performance materials comprise the orchestral parts, as well as a revised score and, in the case of “Epilogue”, also a vocal score which was prepared by Suk’s student Emil Hlobil. The revised scores are based on posthumous editions by Suk’s friend, the musicologist Otakar Šourek. For the edition, the notation has been optimised, for example, the shared dynamics and articulation markings for pairs of instruments are given just once (and not twice). For special markings in Czech, which were previously translated into Italian, the now more usual English has been chosen as the second language. Corrections and additions have been adopted to match analogous passages in the orchestration, and in the case of uncertainties, the manuscript sources have been consulted.
Jonáš Hájek
(translation: Elizabeth Robinson – from [t]akte 1/2025)