�I was saved by music,� wrote Czech composer Josef Suk of his Asrael Symphony. Named after the Angel of Death in the Bible, it is a profoundly tragic work. His marriage idyll had been unexpectedly shattered in 1904, and the death of his father-in-law, Dvor�k, on May 1 served as the initial impetus for composing this five-movement symphony.
Compounding Suk�s grief only one year later was the death of his young wife, Otylka, by which time he had composed three of the symphony�s movements and was working on the fourth. Following this crushing blow, he rejected the fourth movement and the variation-form finale he was planning and replaced them with two Adagios. He finished his symphony in 1906.
Suk�s Asrael Symphony is a late-Romantic masterpiece that belongs in the same league as Bruckner and Mahler in its breadth and emotional charge.
Vladimir Ashkenazy, an expert on Czech music, conducts a masterly, intensive performance of this great work never previously released in a recording of Super Audio quality.
Part 1
I. Andante sostenuto
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Vivace
Part 2
IV. Adagio
V. Adagio e maestoso
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
FLAC