Václav Suk

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Václav Suk , or Váša Suk , ( Russian Вячеслав Иванович Сук , Wjatscheslaw Iwanowitsch Suk ; born November 16, 1861 in Kladno , Bohemia, then Austria; † January 12, 1933 in Moscow ) was a Czech violinist, conductor and composer who mainly worked in Russia worked.

Václav Suk
The conductor Václav Suk
Portrait by Leonid Pasternak (1898)

Life

Václav Suk, whose alleged relationship to both the composer Josef Suk (1874–1935) and the violinist Josef Suk (1929–2011) is unclear, studied violin at the Prague Conservatory from 1873 to 1879 as a student of Anton (ín) Bennewitz and Counterpoint with Josef Krejčí and at the same time took private composition lessons with Zdeněk Fibich . In 1880 he was first violinist in the Philharmonic Orchestra in what was then the Russian city of Warsaw , but shortly afterwards he was concertmaster (1880–1882) in the Imperial Orchestra of Kiev . His career as an opera conductor began in 1885 with the Moscow Philharmonic Society, where he was already employed as a violinist in the Bolshoi Orchestra from 1882 . He then proved his ability as an opera conductor in Charkow (1885–1886). Tchaikovsky recommended him to St. Petersburg , but afterwards he went to Taganrog on the Azov Sea , where he began to expand his repertoire to include symphonic works. His next engagement was again as concertmaster with a private opera orchestra in Vilnius from 1890 to 1894, and this was followed by a series of guest appearances and short engagements in numerous larger Russian cities such as Kharkov, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan and Saratov .

In 1906 Suk finally returned to Moscow, where he then worked for a quarter of a century at the Bolshoi Theater and from 1928 onwards he was chief conductor of the orchestra. After the October Revolution, he was entrusted with the direction of the Moscow Philharmonic Concerts, and as an opera conductor he was considered a specialist in the operas of Rimsky-Korsakov , their premieres (e.g. Pan Wojewoda 1904 in the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatory ) or Moscow premieres (e.g. Sadko 1906, May Night 1909, Der goldene Hahn , also 1909) he conducted as “Vyacheslav Suk”. In 1923, however, the Czech Wagner admirer Suk, who also composed a “festival march in memory of Richard Wagner ”, was able to conduct a particularly ambitious new production of Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theater on the 40th anniversary of Wagner's death , on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the stage famous Wagner tenor Leonid Sobinow , who was so popular that even an asteroid was named after him.

As a conductor of symphonic works, Suk was considered an authentic interpreter of Tchaikovsky's music, but he was also particularly committed to the works of his Czech compatriots, a repertoire that was initially little known in Russia. During his long work in Russia and the Soviet Union, where he was one of the leading conductors in Moscow not only at the "Great Theater", the Bolshoi Theater, but from 1927 also at the Stanislavsky Opera Theater , Suk received numerous honors, and after after his death the orchestra foyer of the Bolshoi Theater was named after him. He was evidently on good terms with the Soviet power throughout his life; Nothing is known of any conflicts with the authorities in relation to his compositional work either.

Compositions (selection)

Piano music

  • Two Bohemian Dances , Op. 2
  • Four pieces , Op. 3
  • Variations on the text of a Bohemian folk song

Chamber music

  • Bohemian folk songs for string quartet
  • Four pieces for violin and piano

Symphonic music

  • Jan Hus - symphonic poem
  • Symphony , Op. 13
  • Festival march in memory of Richard Wagner
  • Serenade in E flat major
  • Serenade in D major - for strings

Songs

  • Bohemian songs - for voice and piano
  • My wish

Web links

Commons : Václav Suk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Tchaikovsky Research , accessed November 8, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Gracián Černušák et al. (Ed.): Československý hudební slovník II. M-Ž. Státní hudební vydavatelství, Prague 1963, p. 646.
  3. ↑ a b Eckart Kröplin: In the interplay of attraction and repulsion. The ring in Russia and the Soviet Union. In: Udo Bermbach u. a. (Ed.): Focus on The Ring of the Nibelung. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3826035755 , p. 63. ( Google books )
  4. ↑ Achilles Alferaki . taganrogcity.com. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
  5. ↑ Asteroid 4449 Sobinov 1987 RX3, s. Alphabetical list of asteroids / S
personal data
SURNAME Suk, Václav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Suk, Váša; Suk, Vyacheslav Ivanovich; Сук, Вячеслав Иванович (Russian spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech composer
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Kladno
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1933
Place of death Moscow