Customer Reviews

Janacek: A Composer's Life

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With the 150th anniversary of Janacek's birth approaching next year, maybe now is the time for a reinvigoration of a bibliography about this composer. Although many books have appeared in recent times about him, few stay in print for an extended amount of time. Forthcoming publications include John Tyrrell's biography of a composer he has written about more than any other academic (published by Faber in 2004) and this spring a new volume from Yale, called `Janacek and his World' edited by Michael Beckerman. Mirka Zemanova, a native-Czech, now living in London and regular contributor to many opera programmes, has pipped them to the post with the publication of her Janacek bibliography.

Many rightly raved about Mirka Zemanova's previous contribution to the Janacek bibliography, her edition of the composer's uncollected essays on musicology. The volume included many previously unseen, or at least untranslated pieces of writing by Janacek. Various reviews of performances in Brno for the local journals and newspapers were enlightening when considering the many influences on Janacek's own writing, the Brno premieres of Cavalleria Rusticana or Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades influencing Janacek's Jenufa, for example. Many passages have seeped their way into recent writing about the composer's life and works with the same regularity as quotes from John Tyrrell's many documentary translations, the letters to Kamila Stosslova particularly.

Zemanova has decided to eschew use of Tyrrell's great translations of the letters and various documents, and returned to the original sources, itself not a bad idea. For the English speaking Janacek fan though, perhaps more cross references to those masterly volumes wouldn't have been too bad a thing, and her dismissal of some of Tyrrell's work is misplaced. Zemanova has great command of her material at best, but occasionally she is rather prosaic on a life that was so lacking in humdrum. Her outlining of details of the Vienna premiere of Jenufa, rather than dwelling on the Prague premiere (itself very important, but perhaps a little too glorified in recent literature) is to be commended. Her scatty musical analysis is a disappointment. Although she outlines her concern with focussing less on the `works' and more on the `life', her style is not always up to the dramatics of Janacek's life. I would recommend a reading of the composer's wife's memoirs for some of the real drama.

It is a mixed book, fitting for such a mixed man, filled with facts that weren't available to previous biographers, but lacking in the grasp of some other regular contributors to Janacek literature. Hopefully, however, it will be the first of a stream of issues about this fascinating composer in the year leading up to the 150th anniversary of his birth, and the 100th anniversary of the premiere of his first great opera Jenufa.

I have recently given a copy of Mirka Zemanova's new biography of Janacek to my mother, who has a serious interest in classical music. She was delighted with the book. She felt the author was illuminating on the background (so important to have the history of Janacek's native Czechoslovakia explained!) and very perceptive about Janacek's influences as well as his style (especially since much of Janacek's music is rooted in the type of folk music which is not familiar to those outside Central and Eastern Europe). My mother was particularly impressed with the author's vivid description of Janacek's personality. What a delight to have a book whose author obviously has a deep sympathy for her subject, but does not clog her account of his life by conjectures!

A perfect Christmas present for any classical music lover.

With the 150th anniversary of Janacek's birth approaching next year, maybe now is the time for a reinvigoration of a bibliography about this composer. Although many books have appeared in recent times about him, few stay in print for an extended amount of time. Forthcoming publications include John Tyrrell's biography of a composer he has written about more than any other academic (published by Faber in 2004) and this spring a new volume from Yale, called `Janacek and his World' edited by Michael Beckerman. Mirka Zemanova, a native-Czech, now living in London and regular contributor to many opera programmes, has pipped them to the post with the publication of her Janacek bibliography.

Many rightly raved about Mirka Zemanova's previous contribution to the Janacek bibliography, her edition of the composer's uncollected essays on musicology. The volume included many previously unseen, or at least untranslated pieces of writing by Janacek. Various reviews of performances in Brno for the local journals and newspapers were enlightening when considering the many influences on Janacek's own writing, the Brno premieres of Cavalleria Rusticana or Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades influencing Janacek's Jenufa, for example. Many passages have seeped their way into recent writing about the composer's life and works with the same regularity as quotes from John Tyrrell's many documentary translations, the letters to Kamila Stosslova particularly.

Zemanova has decided to eschew use of Tyrrell's great translations of the letters and various documents, and returned to the original sources, itself not a bad idea. For the English speaking Janacek fan though, perhaps more cross references to those masterly volumes wouldn't have been too bad a thing, and her dismissal of some of Tyrrell's work is misplaced. Zemanova has great command of her material at best, but occasionally she is rather prosaic on a life that was so lacking in humdrum. Her outlining of details of the Vienna premiere of Jenufa, rather than dwelling on the Prague premiere (itself very important, but perhaps a little too glorified in recent literature) is to be commended. Her scatty musical analysis is a disappointment. Although she outlines her concern with focussing less on the `works' and more on the `life', her style is not always up to the dramatics of Janacek's life. I would recommend a reading of the composer's wife's memoirs for some of the real drama.

It is a mixed book, fitting for such a mixed man, filled with facts that weren't available to previous biographers, but lacking in the grasp of some other regular contributors to Janacek literature. Hopefully, however, it will be the first of a stream of issues about this fascinating composer in the year leading up to the 150th anniversary of his birth, and the 100th anniversary of the premiere of his first great opera Jenufa.

This work sheds all sorts of new light on what by now might be thought of as a well-known story. The author's intuitive familiarity with the Czech sources is most helpful to non-Czech readers and her musicological comments on the composer's works often enlightening. I enjoyed the rigorous discipline with which, as a Czech writer with total facility in English, she stuck to her purpose with crisp and specific phraseology, and resolutely focussed on the facts of the subject's life in a coherent sequence. Thus she puts his life in a context less reverential, bemused or tentative than much of what has hitherto been written for English readers.Essential reading for all students of Janacek.

An inspiring biography - one of those that make you want to learn more about the man and his music. Zemanova's restraint in her portrayal of Janacek-the man is admirable - she could have easily over-dramatized the circumstances of Janacek's troubled life. She also offers just the right amount of analysis so that she provides an insight into Janacek's music without losing attention of her lay readers. Zemanova's research draws on a variety of original sources, and she presents them accurately yet tastefully, leaving the readers to make their own conclusion about one of the most remarkable composers of the last century.