One thing that got me deeper into Janacek was the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I saw in 1988 right when it came out. Janacek's string quartets and piano music are used throughout. The film also got me interested in Milan Kundera's books. For the sake of Janacek's operas and Kundera's novels, I decided to learn the Czech language and ended up moving to Olomouc and later Prague.
I saw that too (I own the VHS tape of that film, which I still watch). One of the tunes in it is from the Valašsko region of Moravia, which gives the viewer a hint as to where the characters moved after the dude was blackballed. Thanks for posting.
Since two years ago, the answer to how I discovered many composers is "thanks to David Hurwitz." (Not Janacek though, whom I discovered through Firkusny's recording of his piano music, which I found in the sales bin and bought on a whim.)
Kenneth Anger. In the 70's I went to see a collection of his films at Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley. Anger used the Glagolitic Mass as the soundtrack to Invitation to the Pleasure Dome. It took me a while to figure out what the H that music was.
So great to hear another’s astute appreciation for a composer I thought I only knew. and loved (ha). I discovered Janacek by purchasing a Columbia recording of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and that came with it. Fell in love with it at first listen. This was 1971 and of course, I educated my friends of Keith Emerson’s “theft” for Knife Edge. So of course, like you I had to listen to most everything else. I love his piano works as well, particularly the cycle On an Overgrown Path. I lived in Amsterdam for a while and while at a Dutch friend’s house I met some her friends who were Czech. There was a piano there and I played one from that cycle. They were amazed that an American even knew about their great composer, let alone admired his work.
Dave, I love your performance of the opening of the 2nd movement... First time hearing Sinfonietta blows your mind away. Same here, and guess what, it still does every time I listen to it!
Shortly after buying the LP "Emerson, Lake and Palmer," in 1970, a friend told me that the first segment of the song "Knife Edge" was based on the Janacek Sinfonietta, which kindled my interest in the composer. I scoured my local local record store and found the 1963 Ančerl - Czech PO recording, which they put on their turntable (remember those days?) and cranked it up on the store sound system, which had plenty of power. It was mind blowing. The Sinfonietta remains my favorite by Janacek.
On the topic, I had no idea that ELP's "The Barbarian" was adapted from Bartók "Allegro barbaro" until several years after I bought their premier LP. It's interesting how, on their later recordings, they did a better job of identifying the composers for the music they adapted, such as their "Pictures at an Exibition" recording and their Copland adaptations. I sometimes wonder if Keith Emerson would have been happy to identify the inspiration for the classical adaptations on their debut LP, but the recording industry was squeamish about associating rock (even progressive rock) with 20th Century classical composers.
@@whistlerfred6579 Bartok's family gave them some flak about it until ELP publicly gave credit. I vaguely recall Emerson saying something to the effect that the record company didn't think ELP fans would be likely to recognize the classical quotes and decided to skip the credits, which was a stupid move that was corrected thereafter. Emerson cut his teeth in classical, which was apparent in his playing style. I remember that ELP was a gateway to classical music for many in that era.
I grew up on classical music, and ELP were my intro to rock (my sister having somehow come home with albums by ELP, Yes and Jethro Tull in about 1971). Its a shame such ambitious music came to be thought of, especially by critics, as pretentious rather than ambitious (although some of it was pretentious), but then very few rock critics actually have backgrounds as musicians. They tend to be journalists or English majors and are there for the lyrics and know nothing about how the musical effects are created. There are, thankfully, now some serious musicians on UA-cam who are capable of bringing musical intelligence (a la Hurwitz) to appreciation of rock music.
This is definitely going to be a fun series. Thru my years I have discovered that most people have a good/interesting story behind how they discovered a piece of music or composer.
As a few others have mentioned in the comments, it was the film The Unbelievable Lightness of Being soundtrack that first intrigued and then got me hooked on Janacek’s unique sound world, especially the haunting piano music.
Hi Dave. Thanks, as always, for your great commentaries! I discovered Janacek at precisely the same time as you: 1979. A performance of The Makropulos Affair at New York City Opera in an unforgettable multimedia production by the great Frank Corsaro. And then Cunning Little Vixen! In the following summer in performances by the Netherlands Dance Theatre, I was introduced to the Sinfonietta. I went to 5-6 performances just to hear that amazing music live. (I don’t remember anything much of the dancing-a lot of men leaping to the trumpets-but the music has never left me!) A unique and deathless composer! Thanks for sharing about him! 🙏🙏🙌
My high school German teacher was a polymath and was a proponent of classical music, including in the classroom. Among other things, he played the complete Gurrelieder for German class. He knew I was into classical, so would occasionally share other things with me. One day he gave me a cassette that he'd recorded a few things on. The first item was Sinfonietta. I had no idea what to make of it. It was so weird! But I kept playing it. Again, and again, and again. Didn't take long to hook me!
My own Janacek story is quite similar to yours. I began trying a Kubelik DG disc, in the Galleria series, with contained Taras and the Glagolitic Mass. And it was the Mass that blew my mind. When the last two timpani strokes fade away, I didn't believe those orchestral, organ and vocal sounds were possible. And I also thought "is THAT religious music?". I felt in love inmediately. And some time after I watch my first Janacek opera in TV: Jenufa with Vaclav Neumann and Leonie Rysanek as Kostelnicka from the Teatro Real in Madrid. My first contact not only with Janacek's opera but also with Rysanek. Well, I just can say that even today I get goosebump when I remember that second act with a possesed Leonie. From then after, I just love Janacek!!
I can't remember how and when I first heard his music, but I can certainly remember the lasting impression it made. What I especially love about the composer is that he only hit his stride when a lot of other artists are calling it a day. Encouragement for those of us who are young in spirit but long in the tooth.
My first encounter with Janacek was through the film 'The unbearable lightness of being'. I was hooked right from the beginning. Starting with his quartets...there are worse things in life.
The Sinfonietta was also my entree into Janacek's sonic world. It wasn't even a very good recording of it because it was a used copy of the Szell Columbia which also had his Bartok Concerto for Orchestra with that lousy cut in the last movement. But what did I know, I still went ape over both pieces. I was bowled over that you cited Makropoulos as the opera that got you into his special and unique stage world because that was the one that hooked me. It was a Czech release billed as the first recording of it in stereo cond. Gregor and issued on Epic. The skull on the lp box cover 💀 caught my eye and I thought the story was so intriguing and very cool. But it was the music that kept my attention because no other composer sounds like he does. Later came Jenufa, Vixen, and so on, plus a San Francisco broadcast of Katya as well as Makropoulos. (Some operas have really good libretti and it was Martinu's fascinating Julietta that sucked me into his stage orbit.)
I got to know Janacek through his piano cycle "On overgrown path". I think what you describe regarding his orchestral music applies here as well: his music sounds like nothing else in the world. The "Good Night" still gives me goosebumps.
Hi Dave….lovely idea for a discussion. At my secondary school in the 60s, we had a genius music teacher. Every morning the whole school (600) of us marched into the hall for Assembly. This entry was accompanied by Miss James playing Schubert impromptus, the easier bits of Beethoven sonatas etc. A few notices, then on scratchy LPs we had to listen to a piece of classical music. It ranged from Dowland, through the great symphonists (just a movement), to one of Holst’s Planets, one of the Four Sea interludes from Peter Grimes…and Janacek’s Sinfonietta. I loved all of it, though so many of my friends shifted and fidgeted. I feel so lucky. After a hymn and a prayer, we all filed out again to more excellent piano music. My father was an excellent jazz pianist, but also liked playing Rachmaninov and Bach. My mother sang and accompanied herself in Italian opera and Dvorak. She was an excellent pianist too. I was drenched in wonderful music from dawn to dusk. Now 70, I can look back on a life enchanted, enlivened, delighted, amazed by music. Thank you, Miss James. And thank you Dave for your beautiful enthusiasm for music, opening me up to even more wonders.
My first contact was the Glagolitic mass by Kempe ; wow... and then the SInfonietta. I just can't remember how I came to buy such an outlandish LP in the seventies in a French provincial town...
I first heard Janacek’s music as a theme of a TV show called Crown Court as as a then Brass Player we also played an arrangement of it in Brass Band and it just stuck. His melodic and rhythmic sensibility just appealed to me - just like Haydn, Hindemith and Wayne Shorter…if you know what I mean!
When I was 14 or 15 (1970 or so) I had managed to get a part time job at a record store (Discount Records) in San Mateo, CA. I had been browsing and overheard a fellow asking about a classical work, the workers didn't know, I did and pointed him in the right direction. The manager said "kid, you want a job?" I said yes sir! So as to Janacek, one of the first shipment items I had to put in stock was the Ozawa/Chicago Symphony EMI/Angel Bartok Concerto for orchestra (coupled with the Janacek Sinfonietta) I knew the Bartok from a Reiner/CSO Victrola issue (loved it - one of my first LPs) and was curious about how the CSO sounded on the new issue (I was a beginning brass player) I got to the Janacek and was blown away by those CSO trumpets in the first movement, and orchestral sounds completely unique. I've been a Janacek convert ever since.
Now that I checked, the Ozawa Janacek Sinfonietta on Angel records was coupled with the Lutoslawski Concerto for orchestra. Oh memory tricks. Well, it's been half a century+!
I started with the Kubelik recordings (also the Mass), but since I have ten years on you, my first Makropoulos Case was on Epic, along with From the House of the Dead, both conducted by Bohumil Gregor. They were not the best recordings, but they really put the works across and provided a tangy and exotic experience.
I first heard Janacek on the radio. It was the Sinfonietta, and I was likewise blown away. It’s still one of my top 10 or so favorites in the repertoire.
Enjoy your channel, Dave. You are opinionated...and that's what is good. You're knowledgeable AND opinionated. Excellent. But that's not why I am commenting. I have followed your channel for maybe a year. Always had the vague notion that I recognized you. Now I have think I know why. Record masters at the Rotunda! I was an undergrad at Hopkins in the early seventies and then went to Maryland for law. All that while I would graze in the classical pastures at Record Masters (sp?). What a joy that store was! I remember it vividly...45 years later. Just popped into my head that bought a Supraphon set of the Takas (sp?) Haydn "Sun" quartets. My little world became larger. Great channel, Dave, and thanks for the memories of stores long ago and far away.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Likewise. I spent many hours at that store, and far too many of the too few dollars to my name. But I got a good education from the staff, and that provided a foundation upon which the following years have been built. Cheers, and keep channeling!
I already mentioned my discovery of Janacek on the previous video--Cunning Little Vixen, and then the String Quartet "Kreutzer Sonata.". I notice on the page I'm looking at, there's a link to "David Bruce Composer" on "Janacek and the art of reaching a climax." I've watched that, and it's very good (as are his others.) It's especially instructive on the heels of Dave's observations here.
my love of Janáček was one reason for going to Czechoslovakia three summers in a row in the 1980's and making some effort to learn the Czech language. Possibly the most important musical experience of my life was spending a week in Brno three years ago at the Janáček festival when all nine of his operas were performed and I heard The Beginning of a Romance for the first time I still regard him as the most naturally inspired composer to have ever lived -- at least in terms of directly translating human emotions into music which, for me, is what it's all about anyway. My very first experience was, I think, a record of the Vixen a friend put on all of 40 years ago. It soon became, and to this day remains, my favourite musical work.
First heard Sinfonietta on WQXR while I was visiting New York in my college days (1960?) The next work I became aware of was Mlada (wind sextet) which has a prominent bass clarinet, my instrument in high school. Often tuned in to Prague Radio while stationed in Germany (1964-65).
Fifth Avenue Records in Seattle was my first exposure to shelving LPs by label. I still remember walking into the store and seeing an entire wall of DG white and yellow spines lined up as far as the eye could see.
Your experience and my own of encountering Janacek are exactly the same Dave. I was interested in something new and exciting, definitely outside my staid comfort zone, and someone gave me the Kubelik album I believe it was Christmas 1971. I was first bewildered, maybe even shocked a bit, then later pleasantly hooked. A buddy of mine a few years later went to see Kubelik in London conduct the Sinfonietta back when Previn was in charge of the LSO, and he raved to me about the experience on a seemingly hourly basis for nearly a week. I envied his experience, all the while wishing he'd shut up. Later on, along came Charles Mackerras, and like you I never looked back. Talk about the perfect conductor for this composer's work, and at just the right time too. Oddly enough, a few of the hard core old time "Rockers" I know hold two classical works sacred. One is Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the other the Janacek Sinfonietta. I wonder why that is?
I'll struggle in this series to differentiate between when I first heard Janacek (not sure, certainly on the radio) and when I first knew I was hearing Janacek. It was a live performance of the Sinfonietta by the Pittsburgh Symphony. It was amazing to see all the brass lined up, the entire breadth of the orchestra. The volume pressed me into my seat. The next day, I ordered the Ancrel recording. My experience illustrates the value of good programming. In the interegnum between Jansons and Honeck, one of the rotating music directors (Torteiler) observed that the orchestra hadn't performed Janacek or Kodaly for years. So various pieces were added to the repertoire. I watched The Unbearable Lightness of Being years before this concert, so evidently I heard Janacek then. Apropos of nothing, I still remember the film has being the least erotic use of the most beautiful naked people I'd ever watched.
I discovered Janáček as a high school. Our little town high school did not have an orchestra, just a band and I was a pretty serious percussionist at the time. One day I heard that the university in the next town over was having auditions for their orchestra; they welcomed community members to audition. So I auditioned and made it in. The conductor was this outrageously and wonderfully eccentric woman from London and she decided to program the Janáček “Sinfonietta” for one of our concerts. I had never heard of him, but I was hooked from that first rehearsal of the Sinfonietta.
There's a wild, sensual, and vaguelly pagan quality to much of Janacek that is quite riveting. I find that in the opening of Mahler's Sym. #3 also, but of course without Janacek's unique harmonic atmosphere. He was a one-off, for sure, and worth pursuing.
I'm glad you mentioned Leonard Bernstein's recording of the "Glagolithic Mass" (the LP cover called the work "Slavonic Mass") because that was my introduction to Janácek. Like your experience with the "Sinfonietta" and "Taras Bulba," I had the sense with that record that I was hearing sounds I'd never heard before. I found the album when my grandfather died and I was allowed to go through his record collection and keep whatever I wanted. I think I went for that record because Nicolai Gedda was the tenor soloist, and I'd heard of him, but once I played it I was just floored. The only piece by another composer I would compare to it is Zoltan Kodaly's "Te Deum."
It's a pity, but I haven't properly "discovered" Janacek yet... And with all this other great music around, it's probably not going to happen very soon... Neat new series! Lokking forward to your videos!
Don't know if anyone remembers it, but back half a century ago there was a mail order outfit called Publishers Central Bureau, that sold books and records really cheaply. I bought all kinds of classical LPs from them, for a buck a pop. Among them was my first Janacek-Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba on Turnabout, done by Ancerl and the Czech Phil. I bought it because the LP cover looked cool. Loved it and kept in touch with Janacek after that.
I came to know him through a video suggestion with a beautiful woman's portrait in the thumbnail... it was his daughter, for whom he composed a elegy for piano tenor and chorus - "Elegie na smrt dcery Olgy"... extremely beautiful and touching, performed by "Pěvecký sbor Čs. rozhlasu/Jan Kasal · Ivo Žídek · Jan Panenka"
I know almost nothing about classical music but do pick up certain composers whenever they appear in Murakami novels and listening to Janacek has been so rewarding.
As an aspiring (now former) film buff at one point in my life I had enough attention span and willpower to go through many, let's say, avantgarde cinematic experiences, one of which was Kenneth Anger's 'Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome', where (at least in one of the versions) 'Glagolitic Mass' served as a soundtrack. Needless to say, Janacek's astonishing music turned out to be the only and totally unforgettable attraction of the movie.
I found a cassette somewhere in 1978 With the Taras Bulba / Sinfonietta combination on Artia. (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Karel Ančerl). Janacek wasn't a household name in The Netherlands either. I found the Sinfonietta mesmerizing
The Smetana & Janacek Piano Trios on Tacet are one of my favourites. I adore the Piano Trio 'Kreuzersonate' like no other work for chamber ensemble. It's sooo satisfyingly good.
I absolutely love your channel and website Dave! So happy to find a kindred spirit who shares my love of music, especially the Czechs. I first heard Janacek as a 20 year old in the early 90s when I was living in Czechoslovakia. I visited Hukvaldy, Janacek's birth place, and the home he bought later in life that has been converted into a museum. Upstairs was a listening room, and our older Moravian hostess selected the second string quartet. The music was harsh and violent to my young years, disturbing even, but she knew the piece well and was deeply moved to tears. I was fascinated by her intense reaction and desperately wanted to understand what she felt in that music. I spent the next 30 years listening to every Janacek recording I could get my hands on and performance I could attend, and I think I'm starting to understand what she felt. I also got to see Vixen in Brno, Jenufa in Prague, and especially loved a concert of the Moravian Teachers Choir singing his works for male chorus. Thanks again for my favorite channel on UA-cam!
In case anyone is interested, YUL BRYNNER had the leading role in the 1962 movie Taras Bulba. Tony Curtis had the part of Bulba's son, but Tony got top billing. There's an obscure movie about Thomas Edison. It's called "LIGHT"AS "BULB"A. Sorry folks.
For Christmas 1979 I received a book called The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music by Lionel Salter( which I still have and treasure to this day) The page on Janacek intrigued me with it's mention of his "short ostinato figures" and "mosaic construction " and the "aura of exultation " enemating from The Sinfonetta. I went to the Bethpage Public Library (Long Island N.Y.) and found an LP of the Sinfonetta. I have loved Janacek ever since.
@Richard Frankel Enemate : to originate from, to issue forth, to emit as warmth enemates from a fireplace(Oxford Dictionary) Why does it have to be something you don't like?
@@richfarmer3478To the best of my knowledge, 'enemate' is not a word; the desired word is surely 'emanate'. Furthermore, and maybe it's just my childish sense of humor, but 'enemate' has unavoidable rectal connotations...hence my silly joke. But, you know what they say about jokes: "If you have to explain it, it wasn't a good one!"
Yep, about 2 months ago I discovered Valentin Silvestrov when my classical station played his Prayer for the Ukraine which, as a former choral director, I loved. Now I'm hooked on him, especially the symphonies 5 - 8. Have you ever done a talk on Silvestrov? I would be very interested in hearing what you think, Lynn
My first encounter was with his two string quartets, thanks to an old Musical Heritage Society recording (I don't recall the performing quartet). They grabbed my attention with their quirkiness and originality. I then found a recording of his "Sinfonietta" (aka "Knife's Edge" as I knew it from my prog-rockish college days) and, from that point, there was no turning back!
I discovered Janacek in high school in the 70s, where we had a wonderful collection of classical recordings. That was the Sinfonietta and, like you, I was already a huge fan of Dvorak, and this sounded enough like Dvorak (meaning echt-Czech) to be not too intimidating, but enough unlike Dvorak to be extraordinarily compelling. (I could say the same thing about Martinu.) As regards his operas, "From the House of the Dead" is, along with "Pelleas et Melisande," the only opera that ever brought me to tears, and I think it's Janacek's masterpiece.
In my case it was the same two works, Taras Bulba and Sinfonietta, on a Parliament (budget label) LP with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ancerl. One of my mathematics professors at university had a copy (along with a few other LPs) in his office and commented that it was unusual music but fun. On that recommendation I bought my own copy; I had much the same reaction as Dave.
One of my friends was fascinated by Janacek's music and he played for me the Glagolitic Mass. I disliked it very much at the time, it appeared chaotic and just to strange to digest. But some years later I listened live to the last movement of the first series of On an overgrown path. I was startled by this music and returned to Mass, Sinfonietta, quartets and chamber works. And it was IT.
i first encountered the music of janacek in the second half of the 90s when i moved to east berlin.....back then a lot of smaller local public libraries where discontinued...so they gave there stuff away for free....the bigger public libraries also got rid of their eastern block and russian vinyl records.... so in the course of 2-3 years i got hundreds and hundreds of classical vinyl lps for free...... a lot of the stuff i didn't find that interesting ( some of the records i still haven t thorughly listened to yet) but when i listened to the supraphon janacek lps i was immediately hooked.... so i started collecting janacek records......i have a pop music listeners approach to music ...i only continue listening to recordings if i immediately like it...all the other stuff i through out....janacek reminds me of composers like thelonious monk...his style is very ideosyncratic...very different from all the other 20th century composers i 've listened too so far. the suprphon recordings ( ancerl, jilek, mackerras, jancek quartet, etc...)are still my favorites.
I recall taking Mackerras's recording of the "Cunning Little Vixen" out from the Northampton public library, where I kindled my love of classical music through withdrawing many of their cds at the end of the 80s right after I'd graduated from college (another notable introduction there was to Prokoviev's work, through the cd set of his complete piano concertos (Ashkenazy/Previn/LSO) ). Re. the Cunning Little Vixen, I was enchanted by its melodic beauty and subject matter (and even it's singing, though I'm not generally an fan of operatic works). Fortunately my exposure to David's channel here expanded my familiarity with and love of his repertoire, after initially not connecting beyond with it beyond that opera. Now I listen with joy to a number of his pieces.
My Janacek discovery was in high school. Early in the mornings I would hear "Music til Dawn" on some radio stations, often Chicago. They played Glagolitic Mass with Bernstein/NYPO . Then I discovered the Sinfonietta and was quite pleased.
How I discovered Janáček? A live Makropoulos with Anja Silja (the Glyndenbourne production). I found the opera quite weird, but they were three ASTONISHING moments: the prelude with the offstage fanfares, the Count Hauk-Šendorf character and, most of all, that final scene.
I discovered Janacek in the seventies as well. A girlfriend who knew much more than me gave me good advice. she said that I should buy records, not of music that I knew I would like and was familiar, but to buy records which seemed strange to me and which at first I may find difficult. The strange and wonderful world of Janacek, however, was immediately fascinating. I started with the string quartets and I never looked back!
I first discovered Janacek with the purchase of the Szell/Cleveland Sinfonietta coupled with the Prokofiev 5th on a CBS LP. I too was wowed after several hearings of the Sinfonietta (the first really complex work I had come across). Of course now, and even soon after, the work blew my mind, and was the start of my becoming a Czechophile. Everything Supraphon became gold to me - and it still is. Then came Taras Bulba. Then came the Glagolitic Mass. But recently, only very recently, I was determined to acquire all the operas, spurred on by the Cunning Little Vixen, which always brings me to tears. My last opera acquired was Gregor's Makropulos Case just before last December to add and virtually complete the operas. I have a mixture of Neumann, Mackerras, Gregor, Jilek as conductors of the operas, and Ancerl in most of the orchestral works. Like yourself, I feel privileged to have discovered Janacek. Thanks initially to Szell in my case.
A correction to the above. The Szell recording mentioned above was of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, but this work quickly led me to works like the Janacek orchestral works. Both Bartok and Janacek introduced me to exciting textures and sounds in orchestral music.
Three works thatmost blew my mind upon hearing them for the first time are Slavic: Martinu's Field Mass, and Janacek's Blagolitic Mass and his setting of the Lord's Prayer. In each case I wondered, "How have I gone so long and heard so much music without having yet discovered these colossal works? It really amazes that music of such stature evades one somehow until, BANG!! it suddenly impinges mightily upon one' s conscienceness.
Of course, that is the Glagolitic Mass that I meant to cite. By the way, reviews of the various recordings of Martinu's Field Mass would be so, so welcome. The greatest recording that I've heard of it is an academic performance from (I think so, at least) Boston University, with the great Mack Harrell as the baritone soloist. Re. Janacek, have you covered recordings of his "Lord's Prayer"?
I was lucky enought to get to play the first and fifth movments of the Janacek sinfonietta with the Trondheim Symphony. At first the sound of the music was realy strange and seemed a bit to psychedelic for my liking, but now two years later his style realy has grown on me!
Ah, classical 'wings'!!! I would jog my hour in San Francisco, NYC, Chicago, etc., then walk back to my hotel by stopping at Tower and perusing their classical stuff and chatting with the knowledgeable clerks. Let alone hanging out in the late and much lamented Harmony House in the Detroit area, learning, and spending, with pleasure. What will todays young people do; hard to peruse digital stores in quite the same way. Why your channel is great to have-and your memories of those lovely, less streaming days! Thanks for this new series; will look forward to it!
My first exposure to Janacek was in 1965 when I was in grad school. I was coming back to my residence and the local public radio station was playing the Glagolitic Mass. I was gobsmacked! I had never heard anything like it, but had recently read reviews of recordings in High Fidelity and Stereo Review by Ancerl, Bernstein, and Kubelik. It was Kubelik’s that was playing on the radio. It didn’t take me long to go to the local record store to buy Kubelik’s recording. Then I added the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba with the Czech Phil, but the Supraphon pressing (on Turnabout in the US) was not very good. As soon as Kubelik’s DG recording came out, I got that and gave my Ancerl to a fellow student who was unfamiliar with Janacek. Happy to say, he became a convert! The operas followed, first with the House of the Dead and then Kata Kabanova-both on Supraphon. Once Mackerras’s came out, I added those as they were issued (all on LP to be replaced by CDs of course). The string quartets, Concertino, Capriccio, and piano music all followed. I now have a huge collection of Janacek’s works and know of none that I don’t own, with multiple recordings of many! His music is still at the top or near the top of my favorite composers.
My first encounter with Janacek was in the fall of 1986. I was studying in Frankfurt, Germany, at the time, and heard Kat'a Kabanova with the Vienna Phil under Mackerras. The rest is, as the saying goes, listening history...
I too was fortunate (about a dozen years or so before you) in having access to a well-stocked record store using the "inventory control" system (Sam Goodys on West 49th St.) coupled with a record catalog that provided a comprehensive high-level overview of the LP landscape and facilitated exploration. As to Janacek, it started with the Slavonic Mass (as it was then known) on a Urania LP conducted by Bakala (now on CD in Supraphon's Archiv series). A few years later, the Mackerras stereo recording of the Sinfonietta and some opera preludes joined the collection.
I didn't know Janacek was so little-known a few decades ago. It had seemed to me he was a household name when I grew up, so I was really surprized to learn that in fact he really was not. I discovered Janacek with the same versions of the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba (Kubelik on DG) I'd borrowed from the library. Likewise, it blew me away. Unforgettable. And thereafter delved into the Glagolitic Mass, and then Jenufa, The Cunning Little Vixen, The Makropoulos Case, all conducted by Charles Mackerras. Janacek rocks, for sure!
Great video. I just watched it twice and posted it to a WhatsApp group. Hopefully someone will get into Janacek. My introduction was having heard Martinu's 6th, the only recording I could find opened with Sinfonietta. ( A Chandos cd). It's still one of my favourite cds.
My introduction to Janacek was through the first string quartet. There was a record store in Adelaide back in the late 70's that stocked recordings of smaller labels. I had never heard the music, but liked the cover, so I bought it. It was the Australian String Quartet Some 45 years later it remains one of my favourite string quartets. I was very taken with your use of the word 'quirky', because that is exactly hoe I have always thought of his music. Perhaps surprisingly, over the decades I have heard many other recordings by more famous quartets on the bigger labels, but none of them have bettered that old performance by the Australian String Quartet. Similarly, I once had a Hungaraton recording of the Brahms horn trio by musicians unknown outside Hungary. It was a much better performance than the Decca CD I later acquired with none other than Vladimir Ashkenazy on piano.
I went to buy Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, which I had heard on the radio, and the first recording I found also contained Janacek’s Sinfonietta! I think it was Abbado with the LSO. I was immediately mesmerized with his themelets, as you say and the disc became my favorite album for a long time. Of course, the rest was history: the Glagolitic mass, Taras Bulba , the string quartets and so on :)
Abbado’ recording of Sinfonietta was my introduction to Janacek. I was fascinated by this unusual composer and subsequently tried other works. I still think, after hearing many alternatives, Abbado gives the definitive performance which is not totally surprising as he so often tops the list of many works.
@@TheVaughan5 I second that! I had Abbado's Sinfonietta on vinyl until eventually sourcing it on CD (with Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis, as on the vinyl). Basically it's great - with Abbado driving home the extremes of the music (in his early golden years) - even if he has to contend with horribly rushing trumpets, from their very first entry to their last!
Dear David, I wondered whether you would like to pay attention sometime to the new recording of two Schubert piano sonatas by Garrick Ohlsson. It surprises me that he is never really mentioned when it comes to the great classical repertoire, whereas this recording is, in my opinion, a breath of fresh air in the field of all the more famous Schubert recordings. The same goes for Anna Queffelec's recent recording of Beethoven's last 3 piano sonatas.
Guess a lot of us discovered Janacek in that first '70s "boom," and for me it was Kat'a Kabanova w/ Mackerras & Soderstrom. Wasn't exactly by choice either. Despite the fact that my ideal opera experience was always the exquisite voice of Victoria de los Angeles in Boheme (or Butterfly or Manon or Traviata or whatever else she put on disc), a friend thought that I'd go for this Janacek too. And, amazingly, I did. Surprised us both, I think. But yeah, it was riveting, powerful, unsettling, and also very beautiful--though not in any way I'd have expected. I can't say it made me an avid fan of Janacek, but it opened my ears to a whole other conception of opera, and I have to say that the live performances I've seen of Jenufa, Vixen, Kabanova have been great nights in the theatre.
One thing that got me deeper into Janacek was the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I saw in 1988 right when it came out. Janacek's string quartets and piano music are used throughout. The film also got me interested in Milan Kundera's books. For the sake of Janacek's operas and Kundera's novels, I decided to learn the Czech language and ended up moving to Olomouc and later Prague.
Wow! What a story. Good on you mate.
I saw that too (I own the VHS tape of that film, which I still watch). One of the tunes in it is from the Valašsko region of Moravia, which gives the viewer a hint as to where the characters moved after the dude was blackballed. Thanks for posting.
Since two years ago, the answer to how I discovered many composers is "thanks to David Hurwitz." (Not Janacek though, whom I discovered through Firkusny's recording of his piano music, which I found in the sales bin and bought on a whim.)
Kenneth Anger. In the 70's I went to see a collection of his films at Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley. Anger used the Glagolitic Mass as the soundtrack to Invitation to the Pleasure Dome. It took me a while to figure out what the H that music was.
So great to hear another’s astute appreciation for a composer I thought I only knew. and loved (ha). I discovered Janacek by purchasing a Columbia recording of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and that came with it. Fell in love with it at first listen. This was 1971 and of course, I educated my friends of Keith Emerson’s “theft” for Knife Edge. So of course, like you I had to listen to most everything else. I love his piano works as well, particularly the cycle On an Overgrown Path. I lived in Amsterdam for a while and while at a Dutch friend’s house I met some her friends who were Czech. There was a piano there and I played one from that cycle. They were amazed that an American even knew about their great composer, let alone admired his work.
Dave, I love your performance of the opening of the 2nd movement...
First time hearing Sinfonietta blows your mind away. Same here, and guess what, it still does every time I listen to it!
Shortly after buying the LP "Emerson, Lake and Palmer," in 1970, a friend told me that the first segment of the song "Knife Edge" was based on the Janacek Sinfonietta, which kindled my interest in the composer. I scoured my local local record store and found the 1963 Ančerl - Czech PO recording, which they put on their turntable (remember those days?) and cranked it up on the store sound system, which had plenty of power. It was mind blowing. The Sinfonietta remains my favorite by Janacek.
Same here, same year, 1970! Different recording for me: Kubelik and the Bavarians
On the topic, I had no idea that ELP's "The Barbarian" was adapted from Bartók "Allegro barbaro" until several years after I bought their premier LP. It's interesting how, on their later recordings, they did a better job of identifying the composers for the music they adapted, such as their "Pictures at an Exibition" recording and their Copland adaptations. I sometimes wonder if Keith Emerson would have been happy to identify the inspiration for the classical adaptations on their debut LP, but the recording industry was squeamish about associating rock (even progressive rock) with 20th Century classical composers.
@@whistlerfred6579 Bartok's family gave them some flak about it until ELP publicly gave credit. I vaguely recall Emerson saying something to the effect that the record company didn't think ELP fans would be likely to recognize the classical quotes and decided to skip the credits, which was a stupid move that was corrected thereafter. Emerson cut his teeth in classical, which was apparent in his playing style. I remember that ELP was a gateway to classical music for many in that era.
I grew up on classical music, and ELP were my intro to rock (my sister having somehow come home with albums by ELP, Yes and Jethro Tull in about 1971). Its a shame such ambitious music came to be thought of, especially by critics, as pretentious rather than ambitious (although some of it was pretentious), but then very few rock critics actually have backgrounds as musicians. They tend to be journalists or English majors and are there for the lyrics and know nothing about how the musical effects are created. There are, thankfully, now some serious musicians on UA-cam who are capable of bringing musical intelligence (a la Hurwitz) to appreciation of rock music.
This is definitely going to be a fun series.
Thru my years I have discovered that most people have a good/interesting story behind how they discovered a piece of music or composer.
As a few others have mentioned in the comments, it was the film The Unbelievable Lightness of Being soundtrack that first intrigued and then got me hooked on Janacek’s unique sound world, especially the haunting piano music.
Hi Dave. Thanks, as always, for your great commentaries! I discovered Janacek at precisely the same time as you: 1979. A performance of The Makropulos Affair at New York City Opera in an unforgettable multimedia production by the great Frank Corsaro. And then Cunning Little Vixen! In the following summer in performances by the Netherlands Dance Theatre, I was introduced to the Sinfonietta. I went to 5-6 performances just to hear that amazing music live. (I don’t remember anything much of the dancing-a lot of men leaping to the trumpets-but the music has never left me!) A unique and deathless composer! Thanks for sharing about him! 🙏🙏🙌
My high school German teacher was a polymath and was a proponent of classical music, including in the classroom. Among other things, he played the complete Gurrelieder for German class. He knew I was into classical, so would occasionally share other things with me. One day he gave me a cassette that he'd recorded a few things on. The first item was Sinfonietta. I had no idea what to make of it. It was so weird! But I kept playing it. Again, and again, and again. Didn't take long to hook me!
My own Janacek story is quite similar to yours. I began trying a Kubelik DG disc, in the Galleria series, with contained Taras and the Glagolitic Mass. And it was the Mass that blew my mind. When the last two timpani strokes fade away, I didn't believe those orchestral, organ and vocal sounds were possible. And I also thought "is THAT religious music?". I felt in love inmediately.
And some time after I watch my first Janacek opera in TV: Jenufa with Vaclav Neumann and Leonie Rysanek as Kostelnicka from the Teatro Real in Madrid. My first contact not only with Janacek's opera but also with Rysanek. Well, I just can say that even today I get goosebump when I remember that second act with a possesed Leonie.
From then after, I just love Janacek!!
I can't remember how and when I first heard his music, but I can certainly remember the lasting impression it made. What I especially love about the composer is that he only hit his stride when a lot of other artists are calling it a day. Encouragement for those of us who are young in spirit but long in the tooth.
My first encounter with Janacek was through the film 'The unbearable lightness of being'. I was hooked right from the beginning. Starting with his quartets...there are worse things in life.
The Sinfonietta was also my entree into Janacek's sonic world. It wasn't even a very good recording of it because it was a used copy of the Szell Columbia which also had his Bartok Concerto for Orchestra with that lousy cut in the last movement. But what did I know, I still went ape over both pieces.
I was bowled over that you cited Makropoulos as the opera that got you into his special and unique stage world because that was the one that hooked me. It was a Czech release billed as the first recording of it in stereo cond. Gregor and issued on Epic. The skull on the lp box cover 💀 caught my eye and I thought the story was so intriguing and very cool. But it was the music that kept my attention because no other composer sounds like he does. Later came Jenufa, Vixen, and so on, plus a San Francisco broadcast of Katya as well as Makropoulos.
(Some operas have really good libretti and it was Martinu's fascinating Julietta that sucked me into his stage orbit.)
I got to know Janacek through his piano cycle "On overgrown path". I think what you describe regarding his orchestral music applies here as well: his music sounds like nothing else in the world. The "Good Night" still gives me goosebumps.
I totally agree! The piece is just pure magic from beginning to end. Kvapil’s recording is an all-time favourite.
Hi Dave….lovely idea for a discussion. At my secondary school in the 60s, we had a genius music teacher. Every morning the whole school (600) of us marched into the hall for Assembly. This entry was accompanied by Miss James playing Schubert impromptus, the easier bits of Beethoven sonatas etc. A few notices, then on scratchy LPs we had to listen to a piece of classical music. It ranged from Dowland, through the great symphonists (just a movement), to one of Holst’s Planets, one of the Four Sea interludes from Peter Grimes…and Janacek’s Sinfonietta. I loved all of it, though so many of my friends shifted and fidgeted. I feel so lucky. After a hymn and a prayer, we all filed out again to more excellent piano music. My father was an excellent jazz pianist, but also liked playing Rachmaninov and Bach. My mother sang and accompanied herself in Italian opera and Dvorak. She was an excellent pianist too. I was drenched in wonderful music from dawn to dusk. Now 70, I can look back on a life enchanted, enlivened, delighted, amazed by music. Thank you, Miss James. And thank you Dave for your beautiful enthusiasm for music, opening me up to even more wonders.
My first contact was the Glagolitic mass by Kempe ; wow... and then the SInfonietta. I just can't remember how I came to buy such an outlandish LP in the seventies in a French provincial town...
I first heard Janacek’s music as a theme of a TV show called Crown Court as as a then Brass Player we also played an arrangement of it in Brass Band and it just stuck. His melodic and rhythmic sensibility just appealed to me - just like Haydn, Hindemith and Wayne Shorter…if you know what I mean!
Ha, ha! That's how I discovered Janacek too. I'm sure that applies to a lot of us.
Lunchtime on ITV right? Didn’t realize it was Janacek until I listened to the Mackerras disc years later.
When I was 14 or 15 (1970 or so) I had managed to get a part time job at a record store (Discount Records) in San Mateo, CA. I had been browsing and overheard a fellow asking about a classical work, the workers didn't know, I did and pointed him in the right direction. The manager said "kid, you want a job?" I said yes sir! So as to Janacek, one of the first shipment items I had to put in stock was the Ozawa/Chicago Symphony EMI/Angel Bartok Concerto for orchestra (coupled with the Janacek Sinfonietta) I knew the Bartok from a Reiner/CSO Victrola issue (loved it - one of my first LPs) and was curious about how the CSO sounded on the new issue (I was a beginning brass player) I got to the Janacek and was blown away by those CSO trumpets in the first movement, and orchestral sounds completely unique. I've been a Janacek convert ever since.
Now that I checked, the Ozawa Janacek Sinfonietta on Angel records was coupled with the Lutoslawski Concerto for orchestra. Oh memory tricks. Well, it's been half a century+!
I started with the Kubelik recordings (also the Mass), but since I have ten years on you, my first Makropoulos Case was on Epic, along with From the House of the Dead, both conducted by Bohumil Gregor. They were not the best recordings, but they really put the works across and provided a tangy and exotic experience.
I first heard Janacek on the radio. It was the Sinfonietta, and I was likewise blown away. It’s still one of my top 10 or so favorites in the repertoire.
Enjoy your channel, Dave. You are opinionated...and that's what is good. You're knowledgeable AND opinionated. Excellent. But that's not why I am commenting. I have followed your channel for maybe a year. Always had the vague notion that I recognized you. Now I have think I know why. Record masters at the Rotunda! I was an undergrad at Hopkins in the early seventies and then went to Maryland for law. All that while I would graze in the classical pastures at Record Masters (sp?). What a joy that store was! I remember it vividly...45 years later. Just popped into my head that bought a Supraphon set of the Takas (sp?) Haydn "Sun" quartets. My little world became larger. Great channel, Dave, and thanks for the memories of stores long ago and far away.
Thank you. It's great to hear from you.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Likewise. I spent many hours at that store, and far too many of the too few dollars to my name. But I got a good education from the staff, and that provided a foundation upon which the following years have been built. Cheers, and keep channeling!
I already mentioned my discovery of Janacek on the previous video--Cunning Little Vixen, and then the String Quartet "Kreutzer Sonata.". I notice on the page I'm looking at, there's a link to "David Bruce Composer" on "Janacek and the art of reaching a climax." I've watched that, and it's very good (as are his others.) It's especially instructive on the heels of Dave's observations here.
my love of Janáček was one reason for going to Czechoslovakia three summers in a row in the 1980's and making some effort to learn the Czech language. Possibly the most important musical experience of my life was spending a week in Brno three years ago at the Janáček festival when all nine of his operas were performed and I heard The Beginning of a Romance for the first time I still regard him as the most naturally inspired composer to have ever lived -- at least in terms of directly translating human emotions into music which, for me, is what it's all about anyway. My very first experience was, I think, a record of the Vixen a friend put on all of 40 years ago. It soon became, and to this day remains, my favourite musical work.
First heard Sinfonietta on WQXR while I was visiting New York in my college days (1960?)
The next work I became aware of was Mlada (wind sextet) which has a prominent bass clarinet,
my instrument in high school. Often tuned in to Prague Radio while stationed in Germany (1964-65).
Fifth Avenue Records in Seattle was my first exposure to shelving LPs by label. I still remember walking into the store and seeing an entire wall of DG white and yellow spines lined up as far as the eye could see.
Excellent. Can’t wait to hear your Roussel story!
Your experience and my own of encountering Janacek are exactly the same Dave. I was interested in something new and exciting, definitely outside my staid comfort zone, and someone gave me the Kubelik album I believe it was Christmas 1971. I was first bewildered, maybe even shocked a bit, then later pleasantly hooked. A buddy of mine a few years later went to see Kubelik in London conduct the Sinfonietta back when Previn was in charge of the LSO, and he raved to me about the experience on a seemingly hourly basis for nearly a week. I envied his experience, all the while wishing he'd shut up. Later on, along came Charles Mackerras, and like you I never looked back. Talk about the perfect conductor for this composer's work, and at just the right time too. Oddly enough, a few of the hard core old time "Rockers" I know hold two classical works sacred. One is Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the other the Janacek Sinfonietta. I wonder why that is?
I'll struggle in this series to differentiate between when I first heard Janacek (not sure, certainly on the radio) and when I first knew I was hearing Janacek. It was a live performance of the Sinfonietta by the Pittsburgh Symphony. It was amazing to see all the brass lined up, the entire breadth of the orchestra. The volume pressed me into my seat. The next day, I ordered the Ancrel recording.
My experience illustrates the value of good programming. In the interegnum between Jansons and Honeck, one of the rotating music directors (Torteiler) observed that the orchestra hadn't performed Janacek or Kodaly for years. So various pieces were added to the repertoire.
I watched The Unbearable Lightness of Being years before this concert, so evidently I heard Janacek then. Apropos of nothing, I still remember the film has being the least erotic use of the most beautiful naked people I'd ever watched.
I discovered Janáček as a high school. Our little town high school did not have an orchestra, just a band and I was a pretty serious percussionist at the time. One day I heard that the university in the next town over was having auditions for their orchestra; they welcomed community members to audition. So I auditioned and made it in. The conductor was this outrageously and wonderfully eccentric woman from London and she decided to program the Janáček “Sinfonietta” for one of our concerts. I had never heard of him, but I was hooked from that first rehearsal of the Sinfonietta.
There's a wild, sensual, and vaguelly pagan quality to much of Janacek that is quite riveting. I find that in the opening of Mahler's Sym. #3 also, but of course without Janacek's unique harmonic atmosphere. He was a one-off, for sure, and worth pursuing.
I'm glad you mentioned Leonard Bernstein's recording of the "Glagolithic Mass" (the LP cover called the work "Slavonic Mass") because that was my introduction to Janácek. Like your experience with the "Sinfonietta" and "Taras Bulba," I had the sense with that record that I was hearing sounds I'd never heard before. I found the album when my grandfather died and I was allowed to go through his record collection and keep whatever I wanted. I think I went for that record because Nicolai Gedda was the tenor soloist, and I'd heard of him, but once I played it I was just floored. The only piece by another composer I would compare to it is Zoltan Kodaly's "Te Deum."
It's a pity, but I haven't properly "discovered" Janacek yet... And with all this other great music around, it's probably not going to happen very soon...
Neat new series! Lokking forward to your videos!
Don't know if anyone remembers it, but back half a century ago there was a mail order outfit called Publishers Central Bureau, that sold books and records really cheaply. I bought all kinds of classical LPs from them, for a buck a pop. Among them was my first Janacek-Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba on Turnabout, done by Ancerl and the Czech Phil. I bought it because the LP cover looked cool. Loved it and kept in touch with Janacek after that.
I came to know him through a video suggestion with a beautiful woman's portrait in the thumbnail... it was his daughter, for whom he composed a elegy for piano tenor and chorus - "Elegie na smrt dcery Olgy"... extremely beautiful and touching, performed by "Pěvecký sbor Čs. rozhlasu/Jan Kasal · Ivo Žídek · Jan Panenka"
I know almost nothing about classical music but do pick up certain composers whenever they appear in Murakami novels and listening to Janacek has been so rewarding.
As an aspiring (now former) film buff at one point in my life I had enough attention span and willpower to go through many, let's say, avantgarde cinematic experiences, one of which was Kenneth Anger's 'Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome', where (at least in one of the versions) 'Glagolitic Mass' served as a soundtrack. Needless to say, Janacek's astonishing music turned out to be the only and totally unforgettable attraction of the movie.
I found a cassette somewhere in 1978 With the Taras Bulba / Sinfonietta combination on Artia. (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Karel Ančerl). Janacek wasn't a household name in The Netherlands either. I found the Sinfonietta mesmerizing
The Smetana & Janacek Piano Trios on Tacet are one of my favourites. I adore the Piano Trio 'Kreuzersonate' like no other work for chamber ensemble. It's sooo satisfyingly good.
I absolutely love your channel and website Dave! So happy to find a kindred spirit who shares my love of music, especially the Czechs. I first heard Janacek as a 20 year old in the early 90s when I was living in Czechoslovakia. I visited Hukvaldy, Janacek's birth place, and the home he bought later in life that has been converted into a museum. Upstairs was a listening room, and our older Moravian hostess selected the second string quartet. The music was harsh and violent to my young years, disturbing even, but she knew the piece well and was deeply moved to tears. I was fascinated by her intense reaction and desperately wanted to understand what she felt in that music. I spent the next 30 years listening to every Janacek recording I could get my hands on and performance I could attend, and I think I'm starting to understand what she felt. I also got to see Vixen in Brno, Jenufa in Prague, and especially loved a concert of the Moravian Teachers Choir singing his works for male chorus. Thanks again for my favorite channel on UA-cam!
Thank you for watching!
In case anyone is interested, YUL BRYNNER had the leading role in the 1962 movie Taras Bulba. Tony Curtis had the part of Bulba's son, but Tony got top billing. There's an obscure movie about Thomas Edison. It's called "LIGHT"AS "BULB"A. Sorry folks.
For Christmas 1979 I received a book called The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music by Lionel Salter( which I still have and treasure to this day) The page on Janacek intrigued me with it's mention of his "short ostinato figures" and "mosaic construction " and the "aura of exultation " enemating from The Sinfonetta. I went to the Bethpage Public Library (Long Island N.Y.) and found an LP of the Sinfonetta. I have loved Janacek ever since.
I had the same book by Mr. Salter. Just the thought of cracking it open all those years ago brings back memories.
It's only 'enemating' if you don't like it! :)
@Richard Frankel Enemate : to originate from, to issue forth, to emit as warmth enemates from a fireplace(Oxford Dictionary) Why does it have to be something you don't like?
@@richfarmer3478To the best of my knowledge, 'enemate' is not a word; the desired word is surely 'emanate'. Furthermore, and maybe it's just my childish sense of humor, but 'enemate' has unavoidable rectal connotations...hence my silly joke. But, you know what they say about jokes: "If you have to explain it, it wasn't a good one!"
@@richardfrankel6102 I did spell it wrong. I wonder what happened to my auto correction.
Yep, about 2 months ago I discovered Valentin Silvestrov when my classical station played his Prayer for the Ukraine which, as a former choral director, I loved. Now I'm hooked on him, especially the symphonies 5 - 8. Have you ever done a talk on Silvestrov? I would be very interested in hearing what you think, Lynn
My first encounter was with his two string quartets, thanks to an old Musical Heritage Society recording (I don't recall the performing quartet). They grabbed my attention with their quirkiness and originality. I then found a recording of his "Sinfonietta" (aka "Knife's Edge" as I knew it from my prog-rockish college days) and, from that point, there was no turning back!
I discovered Janacek in high school in the 70s, where we had a wonderful collection of classical recordings. That was the Sinfonietta and, like you, I was already a huge fan of Dvorak, and this sounded enough like Dvorak (meaning echt-Czech) to be not too intimidating, but enough unlike Dvorak to be extraordinarily compelling. (I could say the same thing about Martinu.) As regards his operas, "From the House of the Dead" is, along with "Pelleas et Melisande," the only opera that ever brought me to tears, and I think it's Janacek's masterpiece.
In my case it was the same two works, Taras Bulba and Sinfonietta, on a Parliament (budget label) LP with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ancerl. One of my mathematics professors at university had a copy (along with a few other LPs) in his office and commented that it was unusual music but fun. On that recommendation I bought my own copy; I had much the same reaction as Dave.
One of my friends was fascinated by Janacek's music and he played for me the Glagolitic Mass. I disliked it very much at the time, it appeared chaotic and just to strange to digest. But some years later I listened live to the last movement of the first series of On an overgrown path. I was startled by this music and returned to Mass, Sinfonietta, quartets and chamber works. And it was IT.
Mackerass’ Sinfonietta Taras Bulba coupling was my baptism. The organ in the final movement of Taras Bulba!
i first encountered the music of janacek in the second half of the 90s when i moved to east berlin.....back then a lot of smaller local public libraries where discontinued...so they gave there stuff away for free....the bigger public libraries also got rid of their eastern block and russian vinyl records.... so in the course of 2-3 years i got hundreds and hundreds of classical vinyl lps for free...... a lot of the stuff i didn't find that interesting ( some of the records i still haven t thorughly listened to yet) but when i listened to the supraphon janacek lps i was immediately hooked.... so i started collecting janacek records......i have a pop music listeners approach to music ...i only continue listening to recordings if i immediately like it...all the other stuff i through out....janacek reminds me of composers like thelonious monk...his style is very ideosyncratic...very different from all the other 20th century composers i 've listened too so far. the suprphon recordings ( ancerl, jilek, mackerras, jancek quartet, etc...)are still my favorites.
I recall taking Mackerras's recording of the "Cunning Little Vixen" out from the Northampton public library, where I kindled my love of classical music through withdrawing many of their cds at the end of the 80s right after I'd graduated from college (another notable introduction there was to Prokoviev's work, through the cd set of his complete piano concertos (Ashkenazy/Previn/LSO) ). Re. the Cunning Little Vixen, I was enchanted by its melodic beauty and subject matter (and even it's singing, though I'm not generally an fan of operatic works).
Fortunately my exposure to David's channel here expanded my familiarity with and love of his repertoire, after initially not connecting beyond with it beyond that opera. Now I listen with joy to a number of his pieces.
My Janacek discovery was in high school. Early in the mornings I would hear "Music til Dawn" on some radio stations, often Chicago. They played Glagolitic Mass with Bernstein/NYPO . Then I discovered the Sinfonietta and was quite pleased.
I discovered Janacek from the movie unbearable lightness of being.
How I discovered Janáček? A live Makropoulos with Anja Silja (the Glyndenbourne production). I found the opera quite weird, but they were three ASTONISHING moments: the prelude with the offstage fanfares, the Count Hauk-Šendorf character and, most of all, that final scene.
I discovered Janacek in the seventies as well. A girlfriend who knew much more than me gave me good advice. she said that I should buy records, not of music that I knew I would like and was familiar, but to buy records which seemed strange to me and which at first I may find difficult. The strange and wonderful world of Janacek, however, was immediately fascinating. I started with the string quartets and I never looked back!
I first discovered Janacek with the purchase of the Szell/Cleveland Sinfonietta coupled with the Prokofiev 5th on a CBS LP. I too was wowed after several hearings of the Sinfonietta (the first really complex work I had come across). Of course now, and even soon after, the work blew my mind, and was the start of my becoming a Czechophile. Everything Supraphon became gold to me - and it still is. Then came Taras Bulba. Then came the Glagolitic Mass. But recently, only very recently, I was determined to acquire all the operas, spurred on by the Cunning Little Vixen, which always brings me to tears. My last opera acquired was Gregor's Makropulos Case just before last December to add and virtually complete the operas. I have a mixture of Neumann, Mackerras, Gregor, Jilek as conductors of the operas, and Ancerl in most of the orchestral works. Like yourself, I feel privileged to have discovered Janacek. Thanks initially to Szell in my case.
A correction to the above. The Szell recording mentioned above was of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, but this work quickly led me to works like the Janacek orchestral works. Both Bartok and Janacek introduced me to exciting textures and sounds in orchestral music.
Three works thatmost blew my mind upon hearing them for the first time are Slavic: Martinu's Field Mass, and Janacek's Blagolitic Mass and his setting of the Lord's Prayer. In each case I wondered, "How have I gone so long and heard so much music without having yet discovered these colossal works? It really amazes that music of such stature evades one somehow until, BANG!! it suddenly impinges mightily upon one' s conscienceness.
Of course, that is the Glagolitic Mass that I meant to cite. By the way, reviews of the various recordings of Martinu's Field Mass would be so, so welcome. The greatest recording that I've heard of it is an academic performance from (I think so, at least) Boston University, with the great Mack Harrell as the baritone soloist. Re. Janacek, have you covered recordings of his "Lord's Prayer"?
I was lucky enought to get to play the first and fifth movments of the Janacek sinfonietta with the Trondheim Symphony. At first the sound of the music was realy strange and seemed a bit to psychedelic for my liking, but now two years later his style realy has grown on me!
It IS strange, but I envy you that opportunity!
Which opera would you recommend for a beginner? If any😕
Jenufa or The Cunning Little Vixen
Ah, classical 'wings'!!! I would jog my hour in San Francisco, NYC, Chicago, etc., then walk back to my hotel by stopping at Tower and perusing their classical stuff and chatting with the knowledgeable clerks. Let alone hanging out in the late and much lamented Harmony House in the Detroit area, learning, and spending, with pleasure. What will todays young people do; hard to peruse digital stores in quite the same way. Why your channel is great to have-and your memories of those lovely, less streaming days! Thanks for this new series; will look forward to it!
My first exposure to Janacek was in 1965 when I was in grad school. I was coming back to my residence and the local public radio station was playing the Glagolitic Mass. I was gobsmacked! I had never heard anything like it, but had recently read reviews of recordings in High Fidelity and Stereo Review by Ancerl, Bernstein, and Kubelik. It was Kubelik’s that was playing on the radio. It didn’t take me long to go to the local record store to buy Kubelik’s recording. Then I added the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba with the Czech Phil, but the Supraphon pressing (on Turnabout in the US) was not very good. As soon as Kubelik’s DG recording came out, I got that and gave my Ancerl to a fellow student who was unfamiliar with Janacek. Happy to say, he became a convert! The operas followed, first with the House of the Dead and then Kata Kabanova-both on Supraphon. Once Mackerras’s came out, I added those as they were issued (all on LP to be replaced by CDs of course). The string quartets, Concertino, Capriccio, and piano music all followed. I now have a huge collection of Janacek’s works and know of none that I don’t own, with multiple recordings of many! His music is still at the top or near the top of my favorite composers.
My first encounter with Janacek was in the fall of 1986. I was studying in Frankfurt, Germany, at the time, and heard Kat'a Kabanova with the Vienna Phil under Mackerras. The rest is, as the saying goes, listening history...
I too was fortunate (about a dozen years or so before you) in having access to a well-stocked record store using the "inventory control" system (Sam Goodys on West 49th St.) coupled with a record catalog that provided a comprehensive high-level overview of the LP landscape and facilitated exploration. As to Janacek, it started with the Slavonic Mass (as it was then known) on a Urania LP conducted by Bakala (now on CD in Supraphon's Archiv series). A few years later, the Mackerras stereo recording of the Sinfonietta and some opera preludes joined the collection.
I didn't know Janacek was so little-known a few decades ago. It had seemed to me he was a household name when I grew up, so I was really surprized to learn that in fact he really was not.
I discovered Janacek with the same versions of the Sinfonietta and Taras Bulba (Kubelik on DG) I'd borrowed from the library. Likewise, it blew me away. Unforgettable. And thereafter delved into the Glagolitic Mass, and then Jenufa, The Cunning Little Vixen, The Makropoulos Case, all conducted by Charles Mackerras. Janacek rocks, for sure!
Great video. I just watched it twice and posted it to a WhatsApp group. Hopefully someone will get into Janacek. My introduction was having heard Martinu's 6th, the only recording I could find opened with Sinfonietta. ( A Chandos cd). It's still one of my favourite cds.
My introduction to Janacek was through the first string quartet. There was a record store in Adelaide back in the late 70's that stocked recordings of smaller labels. I had never heard the music, but liked the cover, so I bought it. It was the Australian String Quartet Some 45 years later it remains one of my favourite string quartets.
I was very taken with your use of the word 'quirky', because that is exactly hoe I have always thought of his music. Perhaps surprisingly, over the decades I have heard many other recordings by more famous quartets on the bigger labels, but none of them have bettered that old performance by the Australian String Quartet. Similarly, I once had a Hungaraton recording of the Brahms horn trio by musicians unknown outside Hungary. It was a much better performance than the Decca CD I later acquired with none other than Vladimir Ashkenazy on piano.
I went to buy Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, which I had heard on the radio, and the first recording I found also contained Janacek’s Sinfonietta! I think it was Abbado with the LSO. I was immediately mesmerized with his themelets, as you say and the disc became my favorite album for a long time. Of course, the rest was history: the Glagolitic mass, Taras Bulba , the string quartets and so on :)
Abbado’ recording of Sinfonietta was my introduction to Janacek. I was fascinated by this unusual composer and subsequently tried other works. I still think, after hearing many alternatives, Abbado gives the definitive performance which is not totally surprising as he so often tops the list of many works.
@@TheVaughan5 I second that! I had Abbado's Sinfonietta on vinyl until eventually sourcing it on CD (with Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis, as on the vinyl). Basically it's great - with Abbado driving home the extremes of the music (in his early golden years) - even if he has to contend with horribly rushing trumpets, from their very first entry to their last!
Dear David, I wondered whether you would like to pay attention sometime to the new recording of two Schubert piano sonatas by Garrick Ohlsson. It surprises me that he is never really mentioned when it comes to the great classical repertoire, whereas this recording is, in my opinion, a breath of fresh air in the field of all the more famous Schubert recordings. The same goes for Anna Queffelec's recent recording of Beethoven's last 3 piano sonatas.
Guess a lot of us discovered Janacek in that first '70s "boom," and for me it was Kat'a Kabanova w/ Mackerras & Soderstrom. Wasn't exactly by choice either. Despite the fact that my ideal opera experience was always the exquisite voice of Victoria de los Angeles in Boheme (or Butterfly or Manon or Traviata or whatever else she put on disc), a friend thought that I'd go for this Janacek too. And, amazingly, I did. Surprised us both, I think. But yeah, it was riveting, powerful, unsettling, and also very beautiful--though not in any way I'd have expected. I can't say it made me an avid fan of Janacek, but it opened my ears to a whole other conception of opera, and I have to say that the live performances I've seen of Jenufa, Vixen, Kabanova have been great nights in the theatre.
Could you do a composer that you initially didn't like but ended up enjoying?
I did. Bach.