Don's Weekly Listen: Suk's Scherzo Fantastique

Happy Halloween weekend! This week’s missive will be brief, since I’m currently at work on a piece set to launch next week on the Todd Field and Cate Blanchett movie Tár (which I enthusiastically recommend, by the way, to all Podium readers). That article will deal with the movie’s commentary on two interlinked and highly contested topics—gender parity in conducting and American orchestras’ replacement of the great conductor with the great administrator.

In the meantime, I offer you a sinfully underplayed Halloween-appropriate orchestral masterwork. The canon has—in my view—offered far too little space to Czechoslovak composers not named Dvořák, and the rich legacies of composers such as Smetana, Janáček, Martinů, and Suk have all suffered as a result.

Josef Suk’s 1903 Scherzo Fantastique combines Bohemian rhythmic directness with Russo-French orchestral luxury. This 15-minute symphonic poem does better than any other orchestral fantasia at evoking the whimsy (and occasional terror) of the season. In the view of this humble critic, it blows the Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre right out of the tub.

Enjoy!