John Dalmas corrects my silly statement:

>>The reason why (Oskar) Nedbal committed suicide was that he was held
>>responsible for financial problems encountered by the Czech Philharmonic
>>Orchestra, of which he was the chief conductor.
>
>Not so.  In 1930 Vaclav Talich was chief conductor of the Czech
>Philharmonic, and had held that post from 1919, remaining until 1941.
>Nedbal was director of the orchestra earlier, from 1896-1906, when it was
>known as the Bohemian Philharmonic.  According to my handy desk reference,
>Nedbal was conductor of the Vienna Volksoper at the time of his death.
>Another list member may have more details.

Oops, this is a typical instance of so big a mistake that one does not even
think that it might happen:-)  My deepest apologies for not realizing that
the CF could not possibly have both Talich and another chief conductor at
the same time.  So, was Nedbal touring with the Wiener Volksoper at the time
of his death?

I do not know whether the Neumann version has been transferred on CD as
yet, but there is one in a light music CD from Karlovy Vary, published by
Classico: CLASSCD 150 - A MUSICAL SOUVENIR FROM KARLOVY VARY * Carlsbad
Symphony Orchestra - Douglas Bostock

Actually it is amazing that such a tuneful piece would be so rare on record.

Speaking of tuneful music and Croatia, I would like to mention a
repertoire item from this country, although it does not seem to be often
performed abroad: Jakov Gotovac's "Symphonic kolo" (a "kolo" is a reel).
The Croatia Records CD also encloses Lisinski's touching "Evening", Bersa's
"Sunny Fields" (historically an important work, and a fine one too), and
Papandopulo's Sinfonietta for strings, uncharacteristically reminiscent of
Prokofiev's neo-classical mood at times, and well worth it in many ways.
Actually there are some very endearing records from this area (Slovenia,
Croatia, Serbia,...), but they would lead us a bit too far off-thread now.
Unfortunately, Croatia Records CDs do not seem to be very well distributed
world-wide.  Probably Croatian general record stores in North America would
care to order them...  From here, the easiest way is to turn directly to
the company or to CroArt.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le