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op.9 wrote:

Well, I found Janacek strange and unfathomable. I was brought up on Haydn-Beethoven-Schubert-Brahms-(Mahler)-Schoenberg route... so I had no entering point for Janacek. I also loved Dvorák and Smetana... but this was no help either.. (its only now I can see the connection) So, luckily I had an 'in at the deep end' experience with the 2nd quartet 'intimate letters' . You simply cant miss what this piece has to say. And I was with it - completely. but it went against all the 'logical understanding' I knew. Rhetoric is turned on its head! Repetition and obsession have different or even opposite meanings from the classical tradition. And there is no preparation for this. You either get it or not. Same as much (serious) new music written since 1980? I had to throw out all sorts of preconceived ideas about how music actually works. Since then I've gradually tried to re-rationalise some of it... not always very successfully. To me, Janacek is like a compilation of all those 'special Mozart phrases' where he sums up the universe with a moment of genius. Nothing is unimportant - everything is chocked with meaning. We can easily get side tracked by the folky nature of it all - nothing really fundamentally to do with it...

if you are in Janacek then my local WGBH starts tomorrow a 3 days Janacek Orgy. Their on-line feed is available

 http://www.whrb.org/

The program timing is on Boston time, GMT-05h

Sunday, January 17
1:00 pm THE LEOS JANACEK ORGY

Leos Janacek lived from 1854-1928, but it was only in his later years that he began to be recognized widely for his original

c. 1870?: Graduale in festo purificationis B.V.M. (Suscepimus); Válek, Prague Chamber Choir (Supraphon)

1873: Ploughing; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1874: Graduale (Speciosus forma); Válek, Prague Chamber Choir, Ksica (Supraphon)

c. 1874: Introitus (in festo ss Nominis Jesu); Válek, Prague Chamber Choir, Ksica (Supraphon)

1875: Benedictus; Válek, Prague Chamber Choir, Ksica

1875: Exaudi Deus; Válek, Prague Chamber Choir (Supraphon)

1875: Exaudi Deus (second version, with organ, rev. 1877); Válek, Prague Chamber Choir, Ksica (Supraphon)

1875: Prelude (Overture) for Organ; Tuma (Supraphon)

1875: Varyto (Lyre) for Organ; Tuma (Supraphon)

1875: Chorale Fantasia for Organ; Tuma (Supraphon)

1877: Suite for Strings;Marriner,Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

1878: Idyll for Strings; Schwarz,Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

1879: Romance for Violin and Piano; Suk, Panenka (Supraphon)

1879-80: Three Fugues; Kahánek (Supraphon)

1880: Theme and Variations for Piano, Op. 1; Firkusny (DG)

1880: Dumka for Violin and Piano; Suk, Panenka (Supraphon)

1883: Ave Maria (Byron); Darlington, Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (Griffin)

1884: Adagios 1 and 2 for Organ; Tuma (Supraphon)

1885: Four Male Voice Choruses;Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir

c. 1886: In Memoriam for Piano; Adès (EMI)

1887-8:

1888: Three Male Voice Choruses; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1889: Little Queens (traditional songs, accompaniment by Ja-nacek); Cerny, Severacek Children’s Choir, Barton (Matous)

1891: Serenade (or Suite), Op. 3; Pesek, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra (Records International LP)

1891: Adagio for Strings; Jílek, Brno State Philharmonic

1891: Lachian Dances; Serebrier, Czech State Philharmonic

1891:

1888-92: Moravian Dances; Pesek, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra (Records International)

1893: Our birch tree; Garland; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1894: Jealousy (Zarlivost), Overture for Orchestra (original Pre

1896: Lord have mercy (Hospodine!); Wysoczanská, Mrázová, Blachut, Jedlicka, Pinkas, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Prague

c. 1897: Cantata, "Amarus" (Vrchlicky) (rev. 1901, 1906); Nemeckova, Vodicka, Zitek, Mackerras, Czech Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra (Supraphon)

1903: Elegy on the death of my daughter (Elegie na smrt dcery Olgy) for Tenor, Chorus, and Piano (rev. 1904); Zídek, Veselka, Prague Radio Choir (Supraphon)

1894-1903:

1903-05:

1898: Folk Poetry from Hukvaldy; Struplova, Predota, Skoumal

1899: Serbian Kolo; Jílek, Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra

1899: Cossack Dance; Jílek, Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra

1901: Our Father (Otcenas; rev. 1906); Svejda, Veselka, Prague Philharmonic Chorus, Tvrsky (Supraphon)

before 1903: Constitues (rev. 1903); Válek, Prague Chamber Choir (Supraphon)

1904: Hail Mary (Zdrávas Maria); Darlington, Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford (Griffin)

c. 1904: Moravian Dances for Piano; Adès (EMI)

1904: Four Moravian Male Voice Choruses; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1905: Sonata 1.X.1905; Firkusny (RCA Victor)

1906: Folk Nocturnes; Cerny, Severacek Children’s Choir, Barton (1, 2, 4, 6) (Matous), Peckova, Lapsansky, Prague Philharmonic Chorus (3, 5, 7) (Supraphon)

1906: Teacher Halfar; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1906-07: Marycka Magdónova; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir

1907-08: Mass in E-flat (ed., compl. Wingfield); O’Donnell, Choir of Westminster Cathedral (Hyperion)

1901-08: On an Overgrown Path for Piano; Schiff (ECM)

1908: Moravian Folk Poetry, exc.; Struplova, Predota, Skoumal

1909: Six Folksongs; Kusnjer, Lapsansky (Matous)

1909: Seventy Thousand; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1909: Christ the Lord is Born (arr. for piano of Czech carol); Adès (EMI)

1910: Veni sancte spiritus; Válek, Prague Chamber Choir

1910: Fairy tale (Pohádka) for Cello and Piano (early version, 1910, rev. 1912); Isserlis, Mustonen (RCA Victor)

1911: There Upon the Mountain (Na Soláni Čarták), cantata; Blachut, Pinkas, Prague Philharmonic Chorus, Prague

1911: Moderato for Piano (publ. 1911); Adès (EMI)

1912: The Fiddler’s Child, ballad, symphonic poem; Belohlávek, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Chandos)

before November 25, 1912: In the Mists for Piano; Firkusny (RCA Victor)

1914: The Quilt; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1914: The Eternal Gospel (Vecne evangelium); Wysoczanská, Blachut, Pinkas, Prague Philharmonic Choir, Prague

Because of an editing error, this was omitted from the printed

1908-17:

1915-18: Taras Bulba, Rhapsody after Gogol; Mackerras, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (London)

1918: Czech Legion; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1917: The Diary of One Who Disappeared, early versions of two songs; Bostridge, Adès (EMI)

1917-19: The Diary of One Who Disappeared; Haefliger, Griffel, Kubelik, women’s chorus (DG)

1914-21: Violin Sonata; Suk, Panenka (Supraphon)

1919-21:

1916: Detvan Brigand Songs; Kusnjer, Lapsansky (Matous)

1916-17: Five Folksongs; Kusnjer, Lapsansky, Prague Philharmonic Chorus (Matous)

1920: The Ballad of Blanik, symphonic poem; Waldhans, Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra (Crossroads LP)

1922: The Wandering Madman; Máti, Moravian Teachers Choir (Naxos)

1923: String Quartet No. 1, after Tolstoy, "The Kreutzer Sonata"; Smetana Quartet (Denon)

1923: Fairy tale (Pohádka) for Cello and Piano (1923 revision of 1910-12 work); Pergamenschikow, Schiff (London)

1923: The Danube (Dunaj), symphonic poem (completed by O. Chlubna from sketches); Pesek, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra (Records International LP)

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