', Op. 16 (''Fairy Tale'') is an orchestral suite from incidental music composed for

Julius Zeyer Julius Zeyer (26 April 1841 – 29 January 1901) was a Czech prose writer, poet, and playwright. Personal life Zeyer was born on 26 April 1841 in Prague. His mother, Elisabeth Eleonora (née Weisseles), came from a German Jewish-turned-Catholic ...

's mythological drama '' Radúz and Mahulena'' by Josef Suk in 1897–1898.

Background

Zeyer's dramatic poem is a love story, combining classical fairy-tale motifs with mythological references. Suk started to write incidental music in 1897 and soon became very attached to the material. In the end he wrote overtures to each scene, intermezzos, as well as various vocal solos and choruses. The play was first performed on 6 June 1898 at the National Theatre in Prague, under the baton of Adolf Čech. Because of the chance of the play receiving regular staging was small, Suk decided to turn most of the music into a four-movement orchestral suite. Suk began to work on the suite on 2 September 1899 at his home in

Křečovice Křečovice is a municipality and village in Benešov District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages and hamlets of Brdečný, Hodětice, Hořetice, Hůrka, Krchleby, Lho ...

and completed the first two movements by the end of the month. Because of the extensive touring with Bohemian Quartet he didn't start to work on the third movement until 12 February the next year in Amsterdam. He completed the work back in Křečovice on 9 June 1900, dedicating it to Zdeňka Hlávková, wife of the architect and philanthropist Josef Hlávka.

Structure

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a large orchestra: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...

s, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet in A, 2 bassoons, 4

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

s in E and F, 2

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

s in E and C, 3

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

, bass drum,

tam-tam A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

, harp and strings:

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

s I, II,

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

es.

Performance

The first performance of the suite was given by the Czech Philharmonic at

Rudolfinum The Rudolfinum is a building in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava. Since its opening in 1885, it has been associated with music and art. Curr ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

on 7 February 1901. The conductor was Suk's colleague from Bohemian Quartet

Oskar Nedbal Oskar Nedbal (26 March 1874 – 24 December 1930) was a Czech violist, composer, and conductor of classical music. Early life Nedbal was born in Tábor, in southern Bohemia. He studied the violin at the Prague Conservatory under Antonín Be ...

. The autograph score carries a dedication to him: ''“To my dear friend Oskar Nedbal, the Godfather of the ''Symphony'' and ''Fairy Tale'', with sincere thanks for his understanding and performance this manuscript is dedicated — Josef Suk”''. Antonín Dvořák wrote about the piece: ''“That is music from heaven”''. The Suite was revised in 1912, and remains one of Suk's most successful works.

Recordings

Václav Talich Václav Talich (; 28 May 1883, Kroměříž – 16 March 1961, Beroun) was a Czech violinist and later a musical pedagogue. He is remembered today as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, the object of countless reissues of his ...

, Czech Philharmonic; Supraphon, 1949 *

Jiří Bělohlávek Jiří Bělohlávek, (; 24 February 1946 – 31 May 2017) was a Czech conductor. He was a leading interpreter of Czech classical music, and became chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would serve on two occasio ...

Prague Symphony Orchestra The Prague Symphony Orchestra (Prague, Czech Republic, cs, Symfonický orchestr hlavního města Prahy ''FOK'') is a Czech orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra has traditionally been known by the acronym 'FOK', standing for 'Film-Opera-Koncert' ...

; Supraphon, 1982 * Libor Pešek, Czech Philharmonic; Supraphon, 1989 * Libor Pešek,

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...

; Virgin, 1997 * JoAnn Falletta, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; Naxos, 2011

References

{{Authority control Compositions by Josef Suk Incidental music Orchestral suites 1898 compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra