Simon Rattle’s survey of Janáček’s operas in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra has already taken in the three best-known of them – big, rewarding works that inspire grand thoughts about life and love – and now arrives at something a little more awkward: The Excursions of Mr Brouček. First performed in 1920 and based on satirical stories by Svatopluk Čech, the opera comprises two drunken dreams, linked only by their self-important dreamer – a man who cares for little other than beer, sausages and always being right – and by the singers playing the main roles. It’s eccentric enough when staged; on the concert platform, even with surtitles to translate the sung text and an interval in which to scour Wikipedia for the details of 15th-century Czech history, it’s baffling.
Since the release of the Prague National Theatre’s version last summer, there’s no longer a clear gap in the market for the recording that will be made from the LSO’s two performances. However, that recording is likely to be first-rate. Behind the brittleness of the opera’s characters there’s music full of fleeting moments of beauty, and these receive their full due in a genial performance from Rattle and the LSO.
