Alexander Moyzes (1906- )
Dances from Gemer Opus 51
Dance prelude from Kokava
Folk Dance
Hayduks from Kolesne
The Little Bear from Rejdova
Down the River Váh Opus 26
At the Source
From Liptov to Oravy
Around Strecno
Romance
Into the Danube's Embrace
Dances from Hron Opus 43
Robbers' Dance
On a Flowering Meadow
Woodcutters' Dance
Music after Work
Alexander Moyzes was the son of Mikulaš Moyzes, an important
figure in the development of Slovak national music in the years leading up to
1918 and the establishment of Czechoslovakia. He was born in 1906 in north-west
Slovakia and learned at first with his father before entering in 1925 the
Prague Conservatory, where he studied organ, conducting and composition. He
graduated in 1929, the occasion of his First Symphony, and went on to study in
the master class of Vitezslav Novák, from which he graduated in the following
year with his Overture for Orchestra, Opus 10. It was Novak too who directed
his concentration on Slovak music, the source of his inspiration.
In 1929 Moyzes was appointed to the teaching staff of the
Academy of Music in Bratislava, the Slovak capital. He was appointed professor
of composition at the Bratislava Conservatory in 1941 and spent a number of
years as principal music adviser to Radio Bratislava, until compelled to take
leave in 1948. He became professor of composition at the Bratislava College of
Musical Arts on its foundation and headed the College from 1965 to 1971.
With Eugen Suchon and Ján Cikker, Alexander Moyzes must be
considered one of the three leading composers of his generation in Slovakia. He
succeeded in creating a style of composition that was thoroughly Slovak in
inspiration, yet nevertheless took account of contemporary trends in European
music, a synthesis that he was to consolidate in his later years. As a teacher
he proved influential and his pupils include almost all the leading composers
of the middle generation in Slovak music.
Moyzes has particular distinction as a symphonist, his Ninth
Symphony having been completed in 1971. His suite for large orchestra, Dances
from Gemer, Opus 51, was written in 1956, the period of his Seventh Symphony.
Its four characteristic movements epitomise the national music of Slovakia in
form and idiom.
The suite Down the River Váh draws overt inspiration from
the scenery of Slovakia, for which Moyzes had a particular affection, and was
started in 1935 for the Czechoslovak Radio Orchestra. He returned to the work
after the war, developing it into its present form. The suite opens with
sources of the river, surrounded by the peaks of the Tatra mountains, from
which it flows. The water tumbles down over the rocks, meeting as a river in
the valley, and flowing on in a majestic hymn to the Morava and the Danube. The
second movement finds the river passing through flowery meadows, where a
shepherd plays his pipe, the sound echoing into the dusk as the sun sets. The
river grows wilder and there is thunder and lightning, while river raftsmen
negotiate the rapidly swirling waters through the gate of Slovakia, guarded by
the old castle of Strecno. In Romance Moyzes recalls olden times, trumpeters
calling noble guests to feasting in the castle, while the peasants suffered,
protected only by outlaws who robbed the rich to help the poor. The suite ends
as the Váh grows in size, rushing on to meet the Danube in the summer sunshine,
with snatches of folk song and dance to be heard through its surging waters.
Moyzes wrote his Dances from Hron in 1930, seeking
inspiration as so often in the folk-music of Slovakia, in this case in
collaboration with the Slovak Folk Ensemble as far as the first two dances are
concerned. To these he later added the Woodcutters' Dance, variations on a
melody in free sonata form, and the final Music after Work, a large scale
rondo. The Robbers' Dance opens in a darkening valley, where the mountain peaks
are seen lit by the setting sun. A shepherd pipe sounds, as the robbers, one by
one, approach the camp-fire and begin their dance, at first slowly, then with increasing
energy.
In the second movement girls, dressed in national festive
costume, dance in the fields, and this is followed by the Woodcutters' Dance. A
bugle is heard, represented by the French horn, echoing in the mountains, and a
bagpipe tune is started softly by the strings, joined by the rhythmic sound of
the axe, growing in strength. The movement dies away to be followed by a
cheerful festive dance in which energetic episodes alternate with gentler
elements.
Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
The Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava), the oldest
symphonic ensemble in Slovakia, was founded in 1929 at the instance of Milos Ruppeldt
and Oskar Nedbal, prominent personalities in the sphere of music. The orchestra
was first conducted by the Prague conductor František Dyk and in the course of
the past fifty years of its existence has worked under the batons of several
prominent Czech and Slovak conductors. Ondrej Lenard was appointed its
conductor in 1970 and in 1977 its conductor-in-chief. The orchestra has
recently given a number of successful concerts both at home and abroad, in West
and East Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, and Great
Britain.
Ondrej Lenard
Ondrej Lenard was born in 1942 and had his early training in
Bratislava, where, at the age of 17, he entered the Academy of Music and Drama,
to study under Ludovit Rajter. His graduation concert in 1964 was given with
the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and during his two years of military service
he conducted the Army Orchestral Ensemble, later renewing an earlier connection
with the Slovak National Opera, where he has continued to direct performances.
Lenard's work with the Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
in Bratislava began in 1970 and in 1977 he was appointed Principal Conductor.
At the same time he has travelled widely abroad in Europe, the Americas, the
Soviet Union and elsewhere as a guest conductor, and during his two years, from
1984 to 1986, as General Music Director of the Slovak National Opera recorded
for Opus operas by Puccini, Gounod, Suchon and Bellini.
For Naxos Lenard has recorded symphonies by Tchaikovsky and
works by Glazunov, Johann Strauss II, Verdi and Rimsky-Korsakov.
