Janacek - The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta
£16.10
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Label: LSO Live
Cat No: LSO0850
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 2
Release Date: 4th September 2020
Contents
Artists
Lucy CroweGerald Finley
Sophia Burgos
Peter Hoare
Jan Martinik
Hanno Muller-Brachmann
Paulina Malefane
Anna Lapkovskaja
Jonah Halton
Irene Hoogveld
London Symphony Chorus
LSO Discovery Voices
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Simon RattleWorks
SinfoniettaThe Cunning Little Vixen
Artists
Lucy CroweGerald Finley
Sophia Burgos
Peter Hoare
Jan Martinik
Hanno Muller-Brachmann
Paulina Malefane
Anna Lapkovskaja
Jonah Halton
Irene Hoogveld
London Symphony Chorus
LSO Discovery Voices
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Simon RattleAbout
Melodious and charming, The Cunning Little Vixen is a work rooted in Czech history and folk music; a sentimental journey through the cycles of life.
For Sir Simon Rattle, it’s a deeply personal and emotional work - “It’s the piece that made me want to become an opera conductor… and still one of the pieces that reduces me to tears more easily than any other,” says the LSO Music Director.
Recorded with an outstanding cast during semi-staged performances, this recording is the second in an LSO Live series showcasing acclaimed collaborations between Rattle and the celebrated stage director Peter Sellars.
Towering fanfares open Janáček’s Sinfonietta, an ode to the composer’s hometown of Brno in the now Czech Republic. It’s a portrait composed for a national celebration of Slavic culture, with Janáček’s love of musical tradition evident in dancing strings and celebratory brass.
“Janáček’s evergreen fable enchants and disturbs... Lucy Crowe’s moments of solitary yearning had an eerie glamour and mystery.” – The Arts Desk
“Rattle and Sellars banish cuteness but drama and beauty shine... A strong cast and outstanding playing by the LSO.” – The Guardian
“A dream cast awakens the opera that changed Simon Rattle’s life” – The Telegraph
“Some conductors play safe. Rattle is pathologically incapable of that. The LSO responded with a virtuosity that compelled open-mouthed awe.” – The Times
Cast:
- Vixen: Lucy Crowe
- Forester: Gerald Finley
- Fox, Chocholka: Sophia Burgos
- Schoolmaster, Cock, Mosquito: Peter Hoare
- Parson, Badger: Jan Martiník
- Harašta: Hanno Müller-Brachmann
- Forester's Wife, Owl, Woodpecker: Paulina Malefane
- Mrs Pásková, Lapák: Anna Lapkovskaja
- Pásek: Jonah Halton
- Jay: Irene Hoogveld
For Sir Simon Rattle, it’s a deeply personal and emotional work - “It’s the piece that made me want to become an opera conductor… and still one of the pieces that reduces me to tears more easily than any other,” says the LSO Music Director.
Recorded with an outstanding cast during semi-staged performances, this recording is the second in an LSO Live series showcasing acclaimed collaborations between Rattle and the celebrated stage director Peter Sellars.
Towering fanfares open Janáček’s Sinfonietta, an ode to the composer’s hometown of Brno in the now Czech Republic. It’s a portrait composed for a national celebration of Slavic culture, with Janáček’s love of musical tradition evident in dancing strings and celebratory brass.
“Janáček’s evergreen fable enchants and disturbs... Lucy Crowe’s moments of solitary yearning had an eerie glamour and mystery.” – The Arts Desk
“Rattle and Sellars banish cuteness but drama and beauty shine... A strong cast and outstanding playing by the LSO.” – The Guardian
“A dream cast awakens the opera that changed Simon Rattle’s life” – The Telegraph
“Some conductors play safe. Rattle is pathologically incapable of that. The LSO responded with a virtuosity that compelled open-mouthed awe.” – The Times
Cast:
- Vixen: Lucy Crowe
- Forester: Gerald Finley
- Fox, Chocholka: Sophia Burgos
- Schoolmaster, Cock, Mosquito: Peter Hoare
- Parson, Badger: Jan Martiník
- Harašta: Hanno Müller-Brachmann
- Forester's Wife, Owl, Woodpecker: Paulina Malefane
- Mrs Pásková, Lapák: Anna Lapkovskaja
- Pásek: Jonah Halton
- Jay: Irene Hoogveld
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Act I: Prelude
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2Act I: Scene 1 ‘Dostaneme bóřku’
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3Act I: Scene 1 ‘Kmotŕenku, zakoncertovala si také’
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4Act I: Scene 1 ‘Mami!’
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5Act I: Scene 1 – Pantomime
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6Act I: Interlude (Proměna)
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7Act I: Scene 2 ‘To čučiš, Lapáku?’
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8Act I: Scene 2 ‘Že nevíš, co máme?’
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9Act I: Scene 2 – Pantomime
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10Act I: Scene 2 – Interlude (Svitáni)
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11Act I: Scene 2 ‘Mělas dělat podlivámě!’
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12Act I: Scene 2 ‘Zbabělče, podivé se, jeli už mrtvá?’
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13Act II: Prelude
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14Act II: Scene 3 ‘Ach!’
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15Act II: Interlude (Proměna)
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16Act II: Scene 4 ‘Ano, ve Stráni bude daleko lépe’
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17Act II: Scene 4 ‘Bývalo, bývalo, dávno už neni’
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18Act II: Scene 4 ‘Domů? Pro ten šňupec tvýho spaní?’
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19Act II: Interlude (Proměna)
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20Act II: Scene 5 ‘Buď to mám těžiště pohyblivé’
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21Act II: Scene 5 ‘Pomni, abys byl dobrým mužem!’
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22Act II: Scene 5 ‘Memnesthó anér agathos einai’
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23Act II: Interlude (Proměna)
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24Act II: Scene 6 ‘Bóžinku, ten je hezké!’
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25Act II: Scene 6 ‘Kradla jsem!’
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26Act II: Scene 6 ‘Zlatohřbítek, lišal s kroužkovými pesíky, z Hluboké zmoly’
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27Act II: Scene 6 ‘Jsem-li opravdu tak krásná?’
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28Act II: Scene 6 ‘Pusťte mě!’
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29Act II: Scene 6 ‘Kdybyste vědědli, co já viděla’
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30Act II: Scene 6 ‘Když je to tak’
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31Act III: Prelude
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32Act III: Scene 7 ‘Dež sem vandroval’
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33Act III: Scene 7 ‘Tož co, Harašto, máš se dobře?’
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34Act III: Scene 7 ‘Běži liška k Táboru’
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35Act III: Scene 7 ‘Kolik jsme to měli děti!?’
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36Act III: Scene 7 ‘Nůšo důle!’
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37Act III: Interlude (Proměna)
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38Act III: Scene 8 ‘A kde otec Pásek?’
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39Act III: Scene 8 ‘Do hroma!’
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40Act III: Interlude (Proměna)
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41Act III: Scene 9 ‘Neřikal jsem to?’
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42Act III: Scene 9 ‘A přece su rád’
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43Act III: Scene 9 ‘Hoj! Ale není tu Bystroušky!’
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44Act III: Scene 9 ‘Totok nésu já’
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45Sinfonietta, JW VI/18 (1926): 1. Fanfare
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46Sinfonietta, JW VI/18 (1926): 2. The Castle, Brno
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47Sinfonietta, JW VI/18 (1926): 3. The Queen’s Monastery, Brno
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48Sinfonietta, JW VI/18 (1926): 4. The Street Leading to the Castle
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49Sinfonietta, JW VI/18 (1926): 5. The Town Hall, Brno
Europadisc Review
There are many good reasons why Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen has become the most popular of his operas. It has an unlikely story derived from a newspaper comic strip, set in and around a Moravian forest, with human and animal characters playing out life’s little dramas. It contains comedy and tragedy, moments of utter charm and others of intense regret and nostalgia, as well as social critique. It combines opera with ballet in unique, unselfconscious fashion, and has parts for children as well as seasoned adult performers, and it is sublimely scored by a composer at the peak of his game.
Although the Vixen didn’t initially travel well outside the Czech lands after its Brno premiere in November 1924, ever since Walter Felsenstein’s landmark 1956 production at Berlin’s Komische Oper it has seen its international reputation grow and grow. A series of successful and imaginative stagings, spearheaded by David Pountney’s 1980 production for Welsh National Opera, have won it many more fans in the anglophone world. Even before then, the young Simon Rattle knew the work well, having been Steuart Bedford’s assistant for a student production at the Royal Academy of Music in 1973. It was, he says, ‘the piece that made me want to become an opera conductor’, and he subsequently conducted the work’s belated Covent Garden premiere in June 1990 (sung in English, and recorded for EMI, later reissued on Chandos). In June 2019 he returned to the work for semi-staged performances directed by longtime colleague Peter Sellars at the Barbican, this time sung in Czech, with the London Symphony Orchestra and a splendid international cast, and now issued on hybrid SACD by the LSO Live label.
Rattle’s view of the work has matured and deepened since 1990, and he and his cast respond keenly to the Czech word rhythms and intonations that give this music so much of its vitality. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley heads the cast of ‘human’ characters, genial and down-to-earth, capable of sudden outbursts of gruff exasperation, but also of rich introspection and insight. His is one of the most engaging and intelligent Foresters on disc since the great Rudolf Asmus in 1957. Vixen Sharp-Ears herself is sung by Lucy Crowe, here in radiant voice, spirited, lively and feisty when she needs to be (as in the scene where she evicts the Badger from his sett, and the goading of the poacher Harašta), but also of luminous beauty. They are joined by an excellent supporting cast, the young singers of the LSO Discovery Voices especially admirable in their winning solo and ensemble contributions.
The early scenes of the opera when the Forester catches the young Vixen, life in the Forester’s farmyard, the Vixen’s dreamscape awakening, and the eventual chaos she causes with the hens are all delightfully done. There’s a sense of rustic grittiness to the first scene at the tavern with the Forester joined by his drinking companions the Priest (Jan Martiník) and the Schoolmaster (Peter Hoare). But the performance really catches fire from the Act 2 courting of the Vixen by Fox Gold-Spur (Sophia Burgos), and the Vixen’s reflections on love, with the mood moving from charm to immense tenderness, matched by playing of huge sensitivity from the LSO. The offstage choral ‘Voice of the Forest’ that opens this scene is hauntingly balanced, while the closing wedding festivities are a jubilant riot.
Act 3 opens with a real sense of menace and bite, and Harašta’s song is delivered with a mood of devil-may-care confidence by Hanno Müller-Brachmann. The entry of the Vixen’s cubs has a lively bounciness to it, and Sharp-Ears herself is now touchingly maternal. The build-up to the coup de théâtre when the Vixen is shot is particularly impressive: between Harašta’s two gunshots Rattle reveals impressionistic layers of detail unmatched on disc or in the theatre. The following interlude is gloriously expansive, and the second tavern scene achingly nostalgic: here the music comes closest to the pained inwardness of Janáček’s previous opera, Káťa Kabanová, and Rattle and his forces get the tone just right.
The closing tableau, with the Forester reflecting on the beauties of the forest and finally surrendering to nature, is simply glorious. Here Finley and the orchestra sing and play their hearts out: the buzz of the flies when he almost falls asleep is achieved with a pianississimo of a quietness almost impossible in the theatre, and from this moment of intense stillness the music blossoms magnificently, before the final enchanting reappearance of another young fox cub and young frog, just as in the very opening scene. The cycle of nature has turned full-circle.
Throughout the opera, the LSO play magnificently: in a work where the interludes and pantomimes (i.e. ballet) take up so much of the score, an audio recording places the responsibility for conjuring up the atmosphere squarely on the orchestra, and they respond generously. Strings play with real depth and variety of tone, woodwind are characterful and cope deftly with the composer’s idiosyncratic yet wonderfully expressive writing, and the brass are both agile and refulgent. A fine performance of Janáček’s Sinfonietta from September 2018 makes an attractive bonus, the extra brass on dazzling form, the different movements well characterised, with moments of exquisite beauty nestled within music of driven punchiness. Nevertheless it’s the opera that is the main event here; caught in finely detailed sound, and expertly balanced and paced, it’s a notable addition to the Janáček discography, and a remarkable achievement by Rattle and his team.
Although the Vixen didn’t initially travel well outside the Czech lands after its Brno premiere in November 1924, ever since Walter Felsenstein’s landmark 1956 production at Berlin’s Komische Oper it has seen its international reputation grow and grow. A series of successful and imaginative stagings, spearheaded by David Pountney’s 1980 production for Welsh National Opera, have won it many more fans in the anglophone world. Even before then, the young Simon Rattle knew the work well, having been Steuart Bedford’s assistant for a student production at the Royal Academy of Music in 1973. It was, he says, ‘the piece that made me want to become an opera conductor’, and he subsequently conducted the work’s belated Covent Garden premiere in June 1990 (sung in English, and recorded for EMI, later reissued on Chandos). In June 2019 he returned to the work for semi-staged performances directed by longtime colleague Peter Sellars at the Barbican, this time sung in Czech, with the London Symphony Orchestra and a splendid international cast, and now issued on hybrid SACD by the LSO Live label.
Rattle’s view of the work has matured and deepened since 1990, and he and his cast respond keenly to the Czech word rhythms and intonations that give this music so much of its vitality. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley heads the cast of ‘human’ characters, genial and down-to-earth, capable of sudden outbursts of gruff exasperation, but also of rich introspection and insight. His is one of the most engaging and intelligent Foresters on disc since the great Rudolf Asmus in 1957. Vixen Sharp-Ears herself is sung by Lucy Crowe, here in radiant voice, spirited, lively and feisty when she needs to be (as in the scene where she evicts the Badger from his sett, and the goading of the poacher Harašta), but also of luminous beauty. They are joined by an excellent supporting cast, the young singers of the LSO Discovery Voices especially admirable in their winning solo and ensemble contributions.
The early scenes of the opera when the Forester catches the young Vixen, life in the Forester’s farmyard, the Vixen’s dreamscape awakening, and the eventual chaos she causes with the hens are all delightfully done. There’s a sense of rustic grittiness to the first scene at the tavern with the Forester joined by his drinking companions the Priest (Jan Martiník) and the Schoolmaster (Peter Hoare). But the performance really catches fire from the Act 2 courting of the Vixen by Fox Gold-Spur (Sophia Burgos), and the Vixen’s reflections on love, with the mood moving from charm to immense tenderness, matched by playing of huge sensitivity from the LSO. The offstage choral ‘Voice of the Forest’ that opens this scene is hauntingly balanced, while the closing wedding festivities are a jubilant riot.
Act 3 opens with a real sense of menace and bite, and Harašta’s song is delivered with a mood of devil-may-care confidence by Hanno Müller-Brachmann. The entry of the Vixen’s cubs has a lively bounciness to it, and Sharp-Ears herself is now touchingly maternal. The build-up to the coup de théâtre when the Vixen is shot is particularly impressive: between Harašta’s two gunshots Rattle reveals impressionistic layers of detail unmatched on disc or in the theatre. The following interlude is gloriously expansive, and the second tavern scene achingly nostalgic: here the music comes closest to the pained inwardness of Janáček’s previous opera, Káťa Kabanová, and Rattle and his forces get the tone just right.
The closing tableau, with the Forester reflecting on the beauties of the forest and finally surrendering to nature, is simply glorious. Here Finley and the orchestra sing and play their hearts out: the buzz of the flies when he almost falls asleep is achieved with a pianississimo of a quietness almost impossible in the theatre, and from this moment of intense stillness the music blossoms magnificently, before the final enchanting reappearance of another young fox cub and young frog, just as in the very opening scene. The cycle of nature has turned full-circle.
Throughout the opera, the LSO play magnificently: in a work where the interludes and pantomimes (i.e. ballet) take up so much of the score, an audio recording places the responsibility for conjuring up the atmosphere squarely on the orchestra, and they respond generously. Strings play with real depth and variety of tone, woodwind are characterful and cope deftly with the composer’s idiosyncratic yet wonderfully expressive writing, and the brass are both agile and refulgent. A fine performance of Janáček’s Sinfonietta from September 2018 makes an attractive bonus, the extra brass on dazzling form, the different movements well characterised, with moments of exquisite beauty nestled within music of driven punchiness. Nevertheless it’s the opera that is the main event here; caught in finely detailed sound, and expertly balanced and paced, it’s a notable addition to the Janáček discography, and a remarkable achievement by Rattle and his team.
Reviews
The sense of dramatic vividness is conveyed superbly by the cast, led by Lucy Crowe’s impulsive Vixen, brimming with joie de vivre and mischief and singing with airy ease. Gerald Finley’s Forester is outstanding, too, presenting a moving mixture of wisdom and resignation ... The generous coupling is every bit as compelling: a taut account of the Sinfonietta that bristles with nervous energy and exultant joy. ... All in all, an outstanding release, and a rewarding celebration of this wonderful composer’s art. Hugo ShirleyGramophone October 2020
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