n Leoš Janáček
n (born in Hukvaldy 1854,
died in Moravská Ostrava 1928)
n „Czech composer. His reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first
made as an instrumental composer, with a small number of chamber and orchestral pieces written
between his operas, which he considered his main work. The balance has now been largely redressed
and he is regarded not only as a Czech composer worthy to be ranked with Smetana and Dvořák, but
also as one of the most substantial, original and immediately appealing opera composers of the 20th
century.“ ¨(GROVE)

CSFR_1980wx janacek1



n1865: Augustinian ‘Queen’s’ Monastery in Old Brno; chorister (so called Modráčci) Choirmaster of
the monastery: Pavel Křížkovský (Janáček´s teacher)
n1874-5: Study at the Prague organ school (Skuherský)
nSince 1877: choirmaster of the Beseda brněnská (turned into mixed choir)
Mozart’s Requiem (1878); Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (1879)
nIntroduced works by Dvořák (Dvojzpěvy, Serenade for strings in late 70.)

n1879-1880: studies at Leipzig Conservatory
nSince 1880: teaching, ethnological (collecting folk music in various regions of Moravia) and
performance activities
nSince 1887: operatic trials (Šárka)
n

nJejí pastorkyňa (3rd operatic work)
n„Jenůfa was a very different work from its predecessor. The success of its première in Brno (21
January 1904) was however probably due more to its Moravian setting than to the provincial
audience’s awareness of its stature. The performances suffered from a tiny and inadequate orchestra
and Janáček, moreover, made substantial alterations before the work was published (1908). He had
submitted both The Beginning of a Romance and Jenůfa to the Prague National Opera before settling
for Brno premières. Karel Kovařovic, chief conductor at Prague, eventually went to see Jenůfa at
Brno but still declined to take it up; possibly he remembered Janáček’s scathing criticism (jw
XV/70) of his own opera The Bridegrooms many years earlier (1887).“ (GROVE)
nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am7u8n3IYZU
nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeh2GPmbKtc&feature=related

janacek_dum_busta_1_ara_denik_clanek_solo janacek_dum_busta_2_ara_denik-galerie



nLate works
nKáťa Kabanová (1920-21)
nLiška Bystrouška / Cunning little Vixen (1922-23)
nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPSiQaujbTY&feature=related
nFirst string quartet: 1923
nGlagolitic mass 1926
nSinfonietta 1926

n„…His fame continued to grow. While Jenůfa was performed in dozens of German opera houses, Káťa
Kabanová began to penetrate into Germany with performances in Cologne (1922, under Klemperer) and
Berlin (1926). His native Hukvaldy unveiled a plaque in July 1926, and on 10 February 1927 he was
elected, together with Schoenberg and Hindemith, a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. The
Sinfonietta began to be widely known; Klemperer conducted performances in 1927 in Wiesbaden, New
York and Berlin. The Glagolitic Mass, which received its première in Brno in December 1927, was
performed in Prague in 1928. Meanwhile Janáček began work on his last opera, Z mrtvého domu (‘From
the House of the Dead’) jw I/11, and Janáček’s friendship with Kamila Stösslová moved on to a more
intense level. …

nThe new state of Janáček´s relationship with his beloved Kamila Stösslová was celebrated in his
String Quartet no.2 Listy důvěrné (‘Intimate Letters’) jw VII/13 which, as he graphically put it,
had been written in fire, unlike earlier works ‘written only in hot ash’ (letter to Stösslová,
18–19 May 1928). The quartet was composed in a few weeks (29 January–19 February 1928) as a break
from From the House of the Dead, which he was finding increasingly oppressive, though by the time
of his regular summer holiday in Luhačovice on 1 July 1928 the opera had been completed in
autograph, copied out by his two trusted copyists, and Janáček had checked through the first two
acts.
n

n1928 Hukvaldy: „During one of their expeditions Janáček caught a chill, which rapidly developed
into pneumonia. On 10 August he was taken to the nearest large town, Moravská Ostrava, where he
died at 10 a.m. on Sunday 12 August. His funeral, held in Brno on 15 August, was a large public
event at which the final scene of The Cunning Little Vixen was played. Shortly after his death his
Second String Quartet was given publicly (Janáček had been present at private performances); in
April 1930 From the House of the Dead received its première in a much-revised version prepared by
Janáček’s pupils Břetislav Bakala and Osvald Chlubna. Zdenka Janáčková died ten years after her
husband, in 1938; Kamila Stösslová died in 1935.“