Zdeněk Liška on Totally Radio
As I may have hinted on a few occasions in the past, I’m a bit of a fan of the Czech composer Zdeněk Liška (1922-1983) - which is why I was delighted to get an e-mail from Joe Walker, possibly Liška’s most obsessive fan, informing me that he’s recorded an hour-long celebration of the man and his work and uploaded it to the Totally Radio site.
You can find it here - there are various listening options, not all of which involve spending money.
Great news to find more Liska fans. I adore his scores for Karel Zeman’s films, especially Baron Prasil. Have these ever been released on cd? Or as mp3 files?
I tried to listen to Joe Walker’s celebration, but, alas, they wanted me to pay for it.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
Liška’s widow vetoes pretty much any kind of exploitation of her husband’s music aside from things that she can’t control - i.e. the original soundtracks still attached to the films for which they were written.
Which is why we haven’t seen a Liška CD, and why the Quay Brothers had to change their plans for the soundtrack to their 2003 film The Phantom Museum - originally it was 100% scored from Liška’s back catalogue, but in the end Gary Tarn had to write a new score from scratch.
January 24th, 2009 at 10:37 am