Notes and Editorial Reviews
Around the world by rail and the music certainly makes the travelling easy.
In 1993 Marco Polo issued a pair of CDs of “Lokomotiv-Musik”. They concentrated on Viennese-style dance music, whereas this new offering ventures into much greater contrasts of style. Some of the items are new to me, as I imagine they will be to others. Therein lies part of the appeal. It's fascinating to hear so many different composers express their love of trains in such varied ways. They take us into the Paris Métro and New York subway, as well as on more relaxing pleasure rides in Scandinavia, the south of France, and across the continents. I'm enchanted especially by Revueltas's Construction of the Railroad, with its wonderfully
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tuneful middle section portraying a train chugging contentedly through the countryside.
Stárek has obviously inherited a love of the subject from his railway-worker father, and he takes delight in bringing out any railway effects in the music. That's so, for instance, in Bohuslav Leopold's orchestration of Dvorák's Humoresque, whose railway connections (beyond a somewhat indelicate lyric and the composer's known fanaticism for railways) seem to be essentially subjective. Stárek doesn't always get up the full head of steam that he might, preferring to savour his engines getting up speed and slowing down, with a relaxing journey through the countryside in between. It's a fascinating and well played collection, though, and should appeal to anyone interested in the representation of railways in music. There's more than enough other material around for a return journey, too.
-- Andrew Lamb, Gramophone [12/2006]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop by Hans Christian Lumbye
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: Romantic
Written: 1848; Denmark
2.
John Henry by Aaron Copland
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1940/1952; USA
3.
Donogoo-tonka: Suite symphonique "Paris": Mosque of Paris by Jacques Ibert
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1932; France
4.
On the Town: The Real Coney Island by Leonard Bernstein
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1944; USA
5.
Humoresques (8) for Piano, Op. 101/B 187: no 7 in G flat major by Antonín Dvorák
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: Romantic
Written: 1894; Bohemia
6.
Bachianas brasileiras no 2 for Orchestra: Toccata "O trenzinho do caipira" by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1930; Brazil
7.
Vergnügungszug Polka, Op. 281 by Johann Strauss Jr.
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: Romantic
Written: 1864; Vienna, Austria
8.
On the Town: Subway Ride by Leonard Bernstein
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1944; USA
9.
Mouvement symphoniques (3): no 1, Pacific 231 by Arthur Honegger
Conductor:
Jirí Stárek
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern
Period: 20th Century
Sound Samples
Kobenhavns Jernbanedamp Galop (Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop)
Unter Dampff Ein Zug fahrt voruber
Suite symphonique, "Paris": I. La Metro
Poeme des rivages, Op. 77: III. Horizons verts, Falconara
Bahn frei!, Op. 45: Bahn frei, Polka schnell, Op. 45
8 Humoresques, Op. 101, B. 187 (arr. B. Leopold): 8 Humoresques, Op. 101: No. 7 in G flat major (orch. B. Leopold)
Bachianas brasileiras No. 2, "O trenzinho do Caipira": IV. Toccata: O trenzinho do Caipira (The Peasant's Little Train)
Mit Dampf, Op. 70: Mit Dampf, Polka schnell, Op. 70
Musica para Charlar: No. 1. Construction of the Railroad
Resa till Amerika (Journey to America): Railway Fugue
Vergnugungszug, Op. 281: Vergnugungszug, Polka schnell, Op. 281
On the Town: Act II: Subway Ride and Imaginary Coney Island
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