MILOS SOKOLA Variation Symphony

[@BRUXELLESCENTRE]

The composer and violinist Milos Sokola studied the violin with O. Vavra and composition with V.Petrzelka at the Brno Conservatoire (1936 - 38). After finishing his studies in Brno in 1938, Milos Sokola moved to Prague to continue his musical training at the Master school at the Prague Conservatoire in the class of Vitezslav Novak (1938-40), completing his course - after a two-year break - in the class led by Jaroslav Kricka (1944). In September 1942 Milos Sokola was signed up by Vaclav Talich as a violinist of the National Theatre orchestra in Prague where he spent the next thirty-one years of his life (until 1973). Even though Sokola devoted to composing most of his free time, he was invariably rather slow in finishing his works as each composition was born in an intensely profound creative process. This also explains why each of his compositions is charged with a powerful message and all his works are noted for their exceptionally balanced form. Milos Sokola applied himself to composing most intensely during the last three years of his life, spent in the quiet village of Male Kysice in the Kladno district in Central Bohemia where he completed his acknowledged masterpiece, the Variation Symphony. Regrettably, Milos Sokola did not live to hear the premiere of this symphonic work, performed by the Czech Philharmonic with Libor Pesek on February 1,1979. In his work Milos Sokola linked up to the best tradition of Czech classical music, bequeathed to him also by his teachers, even though he always managed to maintain his artistic independence. Already his early works attracted a good deal of attention, mainly owing to their compositional maturity and depth of feeling. Furthermore, Milos Sokola was known as a composer who created solely out of his innermost impulses, needs and aspirations and who could never be accused of being too self-assertive in trying to push his own compositions through for public performances. And yet, his music has for years been finding a very warm reception among the music-loving public. Sokola\'s organ compositions, for example, have been performed virtually all over the world and have frequently appeared on gramophone records. The staging of his opera The Prodigal Son in Olomouc back in 1963 was then a true landmark in Czechoslovak musical life. Taken from www.musicbase.cz/composers/889-sokola-milos/page/3/ (czech music info centre) i did not succeed on having the composition date about the writing of this magnificent symphony. He seems to have written 5 string quartets...

[@LordoftheFleet]

I've just listened to the whole of this symphony. Absolutely fantastic! I wish I could find out more about this composer. Apparently, there is also Variations on a Theme by Vitezslava Kapralova, for orchestra, as well as Passacaglia, Toccata and Fugue for large Orchestra.

[@CorentinBoissier]

Excellent upload ! Bravo ! Corentin Boissier (collectionCB, collectionCB2 and collectionCB3)

[@Clivejvaughan]

Mmm...brand new to me - thanks !