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.
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.