This is exceedingly welcome and an exciting follow-up to Pesek's superb account of Suk's Asrael Symphony from a couple of years back (9/91). Completed in 1917, Ripening shows Suk at the height of his powers. Some five years in gestation, this vast yet tightly organized tone-poem shares many of the autobiographical concerns (to say nothing of the huge emotional scope) of both its large-scale orchestral predecessors (namely Asrael and A Summer Tale). Throughout, Suk handles his outsize forces with a truly Straussian confidence and virtuosity, nowhere more strikingly than in the extended Fugue (track 7—Virgin Classics' indexing is most helpful) which attains a climax of truly devastating proportions; the profound serenity of the ensuing coda (where a wordless female chorus is used to magical effect) could not have been harder won. Ripening is, in sum, an enormously impressive edifice, and for many I suspect it will come as a complete revelation. Indeed, as John Tyrrell rightly states in his exceptionally informative booklet-essay: ''After Asrael, Ripening lays claim to be Suk's masterpiece... Those new to this piece will be surprised at its neglect; its skill, subtlety and sophisticated craftsmanship are matched by an intensity of lyrical expression that has few rivals in the twentieth century.''
Pesek's new recording does not, in fact, represent the CD debut of this mighty work: in 1986 Supraphon released a meticulously prepared, if ultimately rather sober rendering from Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic; I recently noted, too, the imminent arrival from Panton of a live account with the Czech PO under Ancerl from 1968, and hopefully Vaclav Talich's classic recording won't be too long in following either (especially now that Supraphon seem to have embarked on an extensive reissue programme of that great conductor's legacy). In the meantime, though, let me salute both Pesek's thrillingly lucid, imaginative direction (at times Neumann sounds positively deadpan by comparison) as well as some superbly accomplished, communicative playing from the RLPO. The engineering, too, is absolutely first-class, and overall this is as supremely convincing a realization of this ambitious, enormously rewarding score as we are likely to get for some considerable time to come.
The coupling, Praga, is an affectionate, enjoyably grandiloquent portrait-in-sound of that fair city dating from 1904. Pesek's fine earlier account with the Czech PO on Supraphon is still available (harnessed to a wonderfully sympathetic performance of the glorious Fairy Tale suite), but this newcomer certainly surpasses it in terms of sheer poetry and swashbuckling flair, and the Philharmonic Hall recording, too, possesses just that touch more tonal opulence than its Supraphon rival (when the organ enters in the coda, the effect is suitably tummy-wobbling). What else can I say? More Suk from this partnership, please!'