# Janacek



## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Who's for Janacek here? I have Taras Bulba reverberating in my three remaining brain cells, have for about a week.
What a composer. I met a man from Brno on my daily walk five years ago. We still meet. He identified Brno as the place where the Bren Gun was invented. He's Jewish, he doesn't want to talk about what he and his mother went through. 
I'm German. My mother, an ethnic German from Werschetz now Vrsac in northern Serbia, finished her Kindergarten training in Brno, She also spent time in Prague. I don't tell him these things. 
We just talk about Janacek, mostly about the choral works, the Moravian folk songs, about the waning of Czech choral traditions, about how his father sang in the chorus of the original performances of this great music.
Then there are the operas, the magnificent piano music, Mladi, the wind quintet, the 2 string quartets, the Cello and Violin and keyboard pieces, that mighty Sinfonietta of which I have 14 recordings, the best, by far, still the Ancerl. ( Now there was a very great conductor.)
And, as a sideline, it is so amusing that in the British world - I now live in Australia, a British Colony, always will be, though it wants to be the USA's Deputy Sheriff in Asia - the conductor who 'discovered Janacek was 'our own' Sir Charles Mckerras. He conducted great Janacek, but he followed in the footsteps of Bakala, Talich, Ancerl, Neumann, all Czechs, just to name a few.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Janacek was a great composer, with a very unique voice. I was completely obsessed with Taras Bulba maybe a month ago. Something about those melodies and the strange phrasing, and particularly the string orchestration. It is not a lush string sound, nor is it cold and overly precise, simply vivid, spirited, and amazingly sparse. In general a sparse and yet magical orchestrator, where less is more.


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Ah, he was a GENIUS.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I do like most of his opera's :tiphat:


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Pugg, do yourself a favor, he was much more than an opera composer. He was one of the all time greats.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

I was reading an unpub on Voleck... there is a world on stuff not in English on him.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Ahem. I approve of his music.

Harrumph.

As you were.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I have always liked him, and have found it intriguing to watch his slow but steady climb up into the standard repertoire over the past 45 years.

PS: My favorite Sinfonietta remains MacKerras' first recording, made in the mid-'60s by a London pickup orchestra (probably late at night after all the players had played other gigs) to whom the music was probably unknown. That made the performance absolutely harrowing -- which fit the music to a T!


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

One should also check out the following threads. There are some good posts there as well.

http://www.talkclassical.com/4388-leos-janacek.html

http://www.talkclassical.com/26259-janacek-glagolitic-mass.html

http://www.talkclassical.com/16212-janacek.html

http://www.talkclassical.com/11647-janacek-dvd-blu-ray.html

http://www.talkclassical.com/4402-janacek.html


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

MarkW said:


> I have always liked him, and have found it intriguing to watch his slow but steady climb up into the standard repertoire over the past 45 years.
> 
> PS: My favorite Sinfonietta remains MacKerras' first recording, made in the mid-'60s by a London pickup orchestra (probably late at night after all the players had played other gigs) to whom the music was probably unknown. That made the performance absolutely harrowing -- which fit the music to a T!


I have that recording: I'll listen to it again. I recall it was a bit raw.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Very interesting composer. One of these days I'll listen to his operas, the bits I've heard are intriguing.


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

dieter said:


> I have that recording: I'll listen to it again. I recall it was a bit raw.


Am listening now: By golly, it's good....


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

dieter said:


> Pugg, do yourself a favor, he was much more than an opera composer. He was one of the all time greats.


And that's your humble opinion I suppose


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I like this two string quartets.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Chronochromie said:


> Very interesting composer. One of these days I'll listen to his operas, the bits I've heard are intriguing.


The Decca 9 CD box set is excellent! Six operas, plus Sinfonietta, and Taras Bulba conducted by Mackerras. And the Schoenberg Quartet's Chandos CD of the string quartets paired with Szymanowski's quartets is another fine recording.


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