Janacek: From the House of the Dead / Mladi: Rikadla [Extra tracks, Import]

Janacek (Composer), Mladi (Composer), Sir Charles Mackerras (Conductor), David Atherton (Conductor), Ivo Zideck (Performer), Jiri Zahradnicek (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Ivo Zideck, Jiri Zahradnicek
• Conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras, David Atherton
• Composer: Janacek, Mladi
• Audio CD (September 12, 1991)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Import
• Label: London / Decca
• ASIN: B0000041XT
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,832 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #36 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Languages > Czech

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive performance of original score, August 18, 2005

By 

Klingsor Tristan (Suffolk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Janacek: From the House of the Dead / Mladi: Rikadla (Audio CD)

How do you make an uplifting opera out of a group of exhausted, demoralised, malnourished prisoners stuck in the Nineteenth Century equivalent of a Stalinist Gulag? Let Janacek show you how.

This is a piece where practically nothing happens. A new prisoner arrives, there's a bit of aimless brutality, the prisoners put on a ramshackle show, a caged eagle is given its (symbolic) freedom and...er...that's about it. The most interesting action happens in a series of long narratives, life-stories told by prisoners to while away the endless time spent in this hellhole.

Yet this is throughout edge-of-the-seat stuff. Janacek, in the last opera of his Indian Summer, uniquely captures that 'spark of humanity' to be found in even the most degenerate of men - both musically and emotionally. Just listen to the Prelude for a taste of what is to come - the chain-clanking drudge of prison life; the manic, soaring, screaming violin cadenza taken from an unfinished Violin Concerto; the brief brassy moments of uplifting hope and thoughts of freedom. And these harsh juxtapositions are clothed in a brutal, spare, blackboard-scraping instrumenation that seems to push Janacek's unique orchestration methods to its limits.

This is especially true in Mackerras's riveting performance, for he will accept none of the later attempts to smooth out Janacek's searing textures, made under the pretext that he left the work unfinished at his death. Mackerras, greatest of all Janacek conductors, presents us with the cruel unwavering truth of the composer's vision. He is abetted by a cast of top singers, Czech nationals all (including the wonderful veteran Beno Blachut), who bring the range of low-life characters vivdly to life.

This is an opera unlike any other in the repertoire and a masterpiece to boot. And Mackerras, wearing his copious research as lightly as ever, delivers a definitive performance of it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Opera Recording of Authorative Edition, August 9, 2003

By 

Franklin Au (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Janacek: From the House of the Dead / Mladi: Rikadla (Audio CD)

This is a very important and fine recording of Janacek's final and most remarkable opera. It is done in a very authorative edition based on the copied autograph score the way Janacek left it, undoing virtually all of the changes and additions to the orchestration his disciples Chlubna and Brekala made, which unfortunately softens the power of this opera.

This results in an edgier, harsher, rougher, chamber-like sound which is truer to Janacek's intentions. It also heightens the power of this work and shows the uniqueness of the composer's voice. Mackerras and John Tyrell must be commended for the tremendous amount of musicological work to restore the work to it's original intended glory.

The two chamber works also serve as wonderful complement to this great work.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, May 15, 2004

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Janacek: From the House of the Dead / Mladi: Rikadla (Audio CD)

This is a superb recording of this rarely performed work. Janacek was never afraid of violating convention and this opera is no exception. Dramatized from Doestoevsky's novel, it lacks a conventional plot with a single dramatic action and clear primary characters. Instead, From The House of the Dead is a series of episodes treating the themes of crime, punishment, and expiation. The structure is mirrored in the structure of the music, which has sort of a theme and variations structure. The score has been reconstructed to approximate Janacek's original intentions, dropping accretions added after his death by some of his well intentioned disciples. The result is also atypical with orchestration featuring a relatively small orchestra and ensemble, as opposed to star-oriented, vocal parts. The result is certainly unconventional and features some of Janacek's most powerful music.