Rafael Kubelik's First Recordings

Rafael Kubelik in 1937

The eminent conductor Rafael Kubelik (1914-96) was closely associated with Czech music, particularly that of the national composer Bedřich Smetana (1824-84). Fittingly, Kubelik made his recording debut at age 23 with two of the symphonic poems from Smetana's Má vlast (My Fatherland) -  Vltava (usually called The Moldau in English) and Z českých luhů a hájů (From Bohemia's Woods and Fields).

Those 1937 recordings were made in London for HMV, although with the Czech Philharmonic, which Kubelik had first conducted when he was 19. At least for recording purposes, the conductor's repertoire was entirely Czech composers until 1948, when HMV had him conduct the Philharmonia for Ida Haendel's recording of the Bruch Concerto No. 1 (which you can find here).

The 1948 session was several months after Kubelik had defected to England. He decided he was no longer willing to remain in Czechoslovakia after the Communist takeover, having just endured a different authoritarian regime led by the Nazis. He did not return to his native land until the fall of the Communist government in 1990.

Kubelik was to revisit the Má vlast cycle four more times during his recording career, but there is nothing immature about these 1937 readings. Vltava is far and away the most familiar of the five symphonic poems, and it receives a sensitive performance here. It may be a little ironic that this most Czech of compositions makes use of a ancient Italian melody called "La mantovana," which has also been adapted for such purposes as the Israeli national anthem, the 1960s instrumental hit "A Walk in the Black Forest," and Stan Getz's jazz composition "Dear Old Stockholm." Italian, Israeli, German, Swedish - yet here it could not be more Czech.

Z českých luhů a hájů also is a good composition, although more patchy than Vltava, accentuated here by the less than smoothly executed side breaks inherent in the 78 medium. But the playing is good, and I probably don't need to mention that the performance is heartfelt.

These recordings were remastered from needle-drops on Internet Archive. The sound in ambient stereo is pleasing.

LINK

Bedřich Smetana