Karel Šejna is scarcely known in Europe. A solo double bass player with the Czech Philharmonic, he was selected by his peers in 1950 to succeed Rafael Kubelík who had moved to the West. He follows in the wake of Vacláv Talich and is an exemplary player of Dvořák and Mahler, whom he brilliantly vindicated with his Symphony No.4. This unusual pairing of Dvořák’s symphonies features No.5, a relatively unknown work in the style of a Czech symphonic suite, and No.6, his first in the wake of Beethoven and Brahms which met with immediate success in Prague, Leipzig and London, but less with the Vienna Philharmonic which had, however, commissioned the work.
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PRD/DSD 350 142
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