Nedbal, Oskar
(b Tábor, 26 March 1874; d Zagreb, 24 Dec 1930). Czech composer, conductor and viola player. He studied the violin with the regens chori Endler in Tábor and then with Bennewitz at the Prague Conservatory (1885–92), where he was also a pupil of Filip Bláha (trumpet and percussion) and Dvořák (composition). With Vitezslav Novák and Suk he was one of Dvořák’s most successful pupils. He played the viola in the Czech Quartet (1891–1906), in which Suk was the second violinist, and was often also heard as the group’s pianist. This ensemble raised the standards of Czech chamber playing to an international level and appeared all over Europe in a repertory based, during Nedbal’s time, on Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Smetana and Dvořák.
Nedbal was equally successful as a conductor. With the Czech PO, which he conducted from 1896 to 1906, he undertook his first major tour outside Austro-Hungary, to England in 1902. He also appeared as a guest conductor throughout Europe, displaying his temperamental, accomplished technique in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Czech composers: Smetana, Dvořák, Fibich, Novák and Suk. Subsequently he settled in Vienna, where he founded and conducted the Tonkünstlerorchester (1907–18). He returned to Prague after the formation of the Czech Republic and conducted the Šak PO (1920–21), but in the strained postwar nationalist atmosphere he was not favourably received, and he left for Bratislava, where he became a leading light in the musical life of Slovakia. He was head of opera at the newly established Slovak National Theatre, director of the Bratislava radio station and a reader at both the university and the music academy. He also conducted concerts for the Cultural Union for Slovakia. His work at the National Theatre included giving the premières of Bella’s Wieland der Schmied (1926) and Figuš’s Detvan (1928). In 1930 he committed suicide by jumping from an upper window of the Zagreb Opera House.
As a composer Nedbal achieved world renown for his operettas, written to Viennese librettos and in the fashion of Vienna and Berlin. He enlivened his skilled technique with an almost Dvořákian invention and made use also of the fresh rhythms of Czech, Polish and Yugoslav folkdance. His one attempt at opera, however, met with little success. In style he developed from the Dvořák-dominated atmosphere of late Czech Romanticism. His inclination towards salon-music sentimentality, shown primarily in the instrumental works, at first had close parallels with Suk’s style. Although his predilection for operetta was, from the point of view of the development of Czech music, something of a regression, he did create works of lasting value in ballet and pantomime, works that continue to display the taste and liveliness of his operettas.
His nephew Karel Nedbal (b Dvůr Králové, 28 Oct 1888; d Prague, 20 March 1964) was also a conductor, working at the Vinohrady Theatre (1914–20), and then becoming chief conductor at Olomouc (1920; 1941–5), Bratislava (1928–30), Brno (1938–40) and at the Prague National Theatre (1945–7).
WORKS
(selective list)
-
Opera: Sedlák Jakub [Peasant Jacob] (L. Novák, after F. Lope de Vega), 1919–20, Brno, 13 Oct 1922, rev., Bratislava, 15 Dec 1928
|
Operettas: Die keusche Barbara (R. Bernauer and L. Jacobson), Vienna, Raimund, 7 Oct 1911; Polenblut (L. Stein), Vienna, Carl, 25 Oct 1913; Die Winzerbraut (Stein and J. Wilhelm), Vienna, An der Wien, 11 Feb 1916; Die schöne Saskia (A.M. Willner and H. Reichert), Vienna, Carl, 16 Nov, 1917; Eriwan (F. Dörmann), Vienna, Komödienhaus (Colosseum), 29 Nov 1918; Mamselle Napoleon (E. Golz and A. Golz), Vienna, Hölle, 21 Jan 1919, rev. Prague, Kleine Bühne, 17 May 1928; Donna Gloria (V. Léon and Reichert), Vienna, Carl, 30 Dec 1925
|
Ballets: Pohádka o Honzovi [Legend of Honza] (F.K. Hejda), 1902, Prague, National, 24 Jan 1902; Z pohádky do pohádky [From Fairy Tale to Fairy Tale] (L. Novák), 1908, Prague, National, 25 Jan 1908; Princezna Hyacinta (L. Novák), 1911, Prague, National, 1 Sept 1911; Des Teufels Grossmutter, 1912, Vienna, Hof, 20 April 1912; Andersen (L. Novák, J. Kvapil), 1912, Vienna, Ronacher, 1 March 1914
|
Orch: Scherzo caprice, op.5, 1892
|
Inst: Variations on a Theme of Dvořák, op.1, pf; Lettres intimes, op.7, pf; 4 Pieces, op.8, pf; Vn Sonata, op.9; 2 Pieces, op.12, vc; Pohádka o smutku a štěstí [Fairy Tale about Grief and Joy], pf, 1906
|
|
Principal publishers: Bosworth, Eibenschütz, P. Neldner (Riga), Schlesinger, F.A. Urbánek, Mojmír Urbánek
| BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. Junk: Handbuch des Tanzes (Stuttgart, 1930)
G. Černušák: ‘Oskar Nedbal’, Tempo [Prague], x (1930–31), 195–7
L. Novák: Oskar Nedbal v mých vzpomínkách [My memories of Nedbal] (Prague, 1939)
J.M. Květ: Oskar Nedbal (Prague, 1947)
V. Pospíšil: ‘Oskar Nedbal – tvůrce české baletní pantomimy’ [Nedbal – creator of Czech ballet pantomime], Národní divadlo, xxx/5 (1954–5), 3–9
A. Bauer: Opern und Operetten in Wien (Graz and Cologne, 1955)
K. Nedbal: Půl století s českou operou [Half a century with Czech opera] (Prague, 1959)
A. Buchner: Oskar Nedbal: život a dílo [Life and works] (Prague, 1976)
N. Lincke: ‘Singspiel – Operette – Musical: die Leitere Muse im Böhmen/Mähren/Schlesien’, Die Musikalischen Wechselbeziehungen Schlesien-Osterreich (Dülmen, 1977), 77–105
OLDŘICH PUKL
Dostları ilə paylaş: |