Janáček (Leoš' Lair)

lunar22 · June 20, 2023, 12:13:25 PM

the ones most influenced by Janacek are choral, both settings of fairy tales and sacred works among others. But my biggest output is symphonies and chamber music, esp. string quartets.

Pohjolas Daughter · June 21, 2023, 10:42:57 AM

Quote from: lunar22 on June 20, 2023, 12:13:25 PMthe ones most influenced by Janacek are choral, both settings of fairy tales and sacred works among others. But my biggest output is symphonies and chamber music, esp. string quartets.

Have you composed a number of works? Sounds like it! Have you been able to have many of them performed?

PD

calyptorhynchus · June 21, 2023, 11:26:28 PM

Quote from: Mandryka on December 10, 2022, 03:27:16 AMDoes anyone have the booklet? Is it interesting? It's streaming everywhere, by the way.

I caught up with this disc belatedly. Amazing to hear the original versions of the 4ets for the first time. Some passages are strikingly different.

As for the Overgrown Path transcriptions, I liked them a lot. If I hadn't heard the piano originals I might have thought these transcriptions were an original work for SQ.

lunar22 · June 21, 2023, 11:45:50 PM

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on June 21, 2023, 10:42:57 AMHave you composed a number of works? Sounds like it! Have you been able to have many of them performed?

well, my opus list is currently 68. Only a couple of chamber works were recently performed by more or less professionals. The chance of any of the orchestral works being done is virtually zero of course as I'm outside the musical establishment, even if some of the works merited it which may not be the case. We all know that symphonic works by contemporary composers virtually never make it to the concert hall.

Pohjolas Daughter · June 23, 2023, 07:52:13 AM

Well, I listened to some of the tracks of that quartet version of Janacek's "On an Overgrown Path" with the Quartetto Energie Nove (was going to listen to all of it, but youtube has a mind of its own re order of tracks!). One of the ones that I listened to was "The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away!"--which is one of my favorites. Prefaced by Nos. 1-3. My thoughts: pretty, but lacks immediacy. Didn't feel like it had the nuances and great interpretative playing that I love in my Firkusny recording--maybe this is due in part to the switch from piano to string quartet? In any event, it just didn't have the impact on me that the piano version has.

PD

p.s. If interested in listening to it, it's been uploaded by Naxos of America on YT.

lunar22 · June 23, 2023, 08:27:20 AM

I heard this a while ago and although it's interesting, I don't find it captures the intimacy never mind the tragedy of the original. I also find Firkusny definitive here in what's my favourite piano work by any composer-- most non-Czech pianists I've heard don't entirely seem to get it.

Mandryka · September 10, 2025, 01:15:04 PM

Schreier and a pianist I haven't heard of before called Marian Lapsansky. They're performing the Diary of one who Disappeared, in German. It is a wonderful performance - both from the pianist and the singer. Schreier is extremely expressive, nuanced - and not at all self centred; Lapsansky is wide awake, full of life - I'll have to see if he made other recordings. Gertrude Lathusen-Oertel also sings in a couple of songs. The little choir is sweet as a nut.

As you can see, I am enthusiastic. Streaming on spotify at least.

relm1 · September 17, 2025, 05:34:21 AM

Janacek's Glagolitic Mass is such an interesting piece. I just heard the new recording of the original 1926-7 version by Marek Janowski on PentaTone with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. I've never heard this version but it feels kind of different but still so interesting. What a fascinatingly original work. I don't think there is anything else quite like it. And so engaging. I heard it performed live but was with my mom and sister and might have been more concerned if they "get it" then if I enjoyed it. They are not huge concert music fans but are open to it. I think they didn't know what to make of it.

Varied, full of contrasts, drama, atmosphere, and spectacle. But is also a strange piece. I felt that more so in this release than I had ever noticed before even having heard it performed live.

The next work on the album was Taras Bulba from a decade earlier. This is a wonderful release that made me hear music I felt I knew well in a new way. I hear some of Sibelius and Hindemith in this as well but wonder if they were influenced by him at all or perhaps shared the same influences. Regardless, this was a deeply enjoyable listening experience.

Roasted Swan · September 17, 2025, 06:45:10 AM

Quote from: relm1 on September 17, 2025, 05:34:21 AMJanacek's Glagolitic Mass is such an interesting piece. I just heard the new recording of the original 1926-7 version by Marek Janowski on PentaTone with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. I've never heard this version but it feels kind of different but still so interesting. What a fascinatingly original work. I don't think there is anything else quite like it. And so engaging. I heard it performed live but was with my mom and sister and might have been more concerned if they "get it" then if I enjoyed it. They are not huge concert music fans but are open to it. I think they didn't know what to make of it.

Varied, full of contrasts, drama, atmosphere, and spectacle. But is also a strange piece. I felt that more so in this release than I had ever noticed before even having heard it performed live.

The next work on the album was Taras Bulba from a decade earlier. This is a wonderful release that made me hear music I felt I knew well in a new way. I hear some of Sibelius and Hindemith in this as well but wonder if they were influenced by him at all or perhaps shared the same influences. Regardless, this was a deeply enjoyable listening experience.

Absolutely agree about the remarkable power and impact of this work. Perhaps try other versions of the 1927 original. The Janowski is a bit softer edged than this work really needs. Mackerras on Chandos and Nepotil on Supraphon are both even more compelling in the 1927 original version I reckon....

Symphonic Addict · September 27, 2025, 06:04:38 PM

How is it that this awesome composer wrote a ballet? Granted, it's not properly a major work and it doesn't sound much like a ballet, but Rákos Rákoczy (1891) contains lots of fun in the form of folk songs and dances (it's a choral ballet), giving as a result a piece that exudes charm and lovely melodies in spades. A quite endearing curiosity.