Zelenka: EMS 15 April

[doversoul1]

Lucie Skeaping profiles the life, times and music of the 18th-century Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka, who won the admiration of many distinguished contemporaries, among them Johann Sebastian Bach. One of the most neglected figures of the late baroque, Zelenka composed some of the most sumptuous and glorious church music ever written.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b037kq

[ardcarp]

Listening now. Great stuff. I have a friend who 'discovered' Zelenka about 20 years ago and has programmed lots of his music (mainly Mass settings) ever since. I've sung in most of them. It's hard to put a finger on his style. He tends more towards the late Baroque and the galante than Bach..and he is noted for the odd harmonic quirk or sudden shift in tonality.

[MickyD]

I seem to remember someone saying that Zelenka was Bach with a bit of Charles Ives thrown in!

[Serial_Apologist]

I seem to remember someone saying that Zelenka was Bach with a bit of Charles Ives thrown in!

More likely Biber - except Biber was of the Purcell/Corelli generation, preceding that of the Bach/Handel/Scarlatti triumvirate.

[greenilex]

I enjoyed Lamentations 2 - amazingly well sung.

[MickyD]

I was always grateful to Harnoncourt for being the first person to open my ears to Zelenka.

[Stanfordian]

Lucie Skeaping profiles the life, times and music of the 18th-century Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka, who won the admiration of many distinguished contemporaries, among them Johann Sebastian Bach. One of the most neglected figures of the late baroque, Zelenka composed some of the most sumptuous and glorious church music ever written.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b037kq

I'll listen to that R3 programme on Zelenka when I get chance. Apposite, as I'm off to Dresden in some three weeks.

[doversoul1]

I enjoyed Lamentations 2 - amazingly well sung.

It was, wasn’t it? Michael Chance. He is, I think, one of those under-appreciated artists.

A couple of treats. The second performance is a bit thumpy but I imagine it would have made Zelenka smile. Very young Václav Luks and Hana Blažíková* (2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcGz1zpMBso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCL2CWQaH4A

*She was 28. I thought she was much younger.

[ardcarp]

More likely Biber

["to have sounded like Bach with a bit of Charles Ives thrown in"]

Biber was a generation earlier than Zelenka, and IMHO a wholly different sort of composer. He did experiment with scordatura violin tunings...but that was to facilitate the production of harmonious sounds (to put it over-simply) and not to frighten the horses.

His choral works are little-known, which is a shame. They were written mainly for Salzburg Cathedral, and to some extent hark back to the polychoral writing of Gabrieli, Monteverdi, et al. His Missa Sancti Henrici for instance is scored for 8-part brass choir, a 5-part string choir and a 5-part choir choir (!) plus a favoriti group. It's very impressive, but not ground-breaking in the sense that his solo violin works were....and nothing like Zelenka.

[jayne lee wilson]

Seems worth copying this from summer 2013...
(I have become fonder of the CPO Orchestral box since, it complements the more emotionally-charged DG Bern set well...(though the latter is the one you'll probably fall in love with...)
A lot of these may be on Qobuz now, so seek them out there.) BTW, most of the Nibiru releases received glowing reviews in the IRR.)

I had a major crush on Zelenka this summer [i.e 2013] and discovered the tiny specialist label NIBIRU, who have recorded most of his greatest sacred works with the performers ENSEMBLE INEGAL/PRAGUE BAROQUE SOLOISTS directed by ADAM VIKTORA, and a wonderful group of soloists. Among the highlights...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=ZELENKA+nibiru

MISSA OMNIUM SANCTORUM ZWV 21
MISSA PURIFICATIONIS BEATAE VIRGINIS MARIAE ZWV 16
MISSA SANCTISSIMAE TRINITATIS ZWV168
MISSA SANCTI JOSEPHI ZWV 14
and the oratorio IL SERPENTE DI BRONZO.
Part of the pleasure with Nibiru is the lovely CD presentation and very lively and informative notes.

COLLEGIUM 1704 \VACLAV LUKS have made fine recordings too:
on ACCENT - OFFICIUM DEFUNCTORUM/REQUIEM
on ZIGZAG - MISSA VOTIVA ZWV 18 and the oratorio I PENITENTI AL SEPOLCRO ZWV 63

One of his greatest masses, the MISSA DEI PATRIS, can be found on CARUS with BAROCKORCHESTER STUTTGART etc/FRIEDER BERNIUS, with another fine MISSA VOTIVA too (the Luks one is the wilder of the two, the Bernius one more polished.)

All of these have given me huge pleasure - the crush became a true love...

There's a lovely, truly classic DG Collectors' Edition https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zelenka-Orc...g+collectorsof the ORCHESTRAL WORKS and TRIO SONATAS with CAMERATA BERN/ALEX VAN WIIJNKOOP and soloists including Barry Tuckwell and Heinz Holliger, whose first recordings of the Trio Sonatas are included. I prefer this to the Period Instrument CPO/Sonnentheil set of the Capriccios (https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...ENKA+cpothough the latter do well enough & have the lovely, delicate HIPPs textures), as the Camerata aren't a large group and play with more warmth and a greater sense of responding to each other across the stage...

PAUL DOMBRECHT'S ensemble have a classic period-instrument recording of the TRIO SONATAS on ACCENT.

Overall I feel the most inspired of his works are the Masses and the Trio Sonatas, but just plunge in anywhere really... if you can download, one of the liveliest instrumental works is the intriguingly named HIPOCHONDRiE A 7 CONCERTANTI in A major. (Presto Classical offer all the DG set separately as separate lossless files).

[MickyD]

Thanks for the list, Jayne. Incidentally, the Hipochondrie à 7 Concertanti is on the pioneering disc from the late 70s with Harnoncourt. I guess that is a benchmark recording for you, too, as I seem to recall that you hold Harnoncourt's Telemann discs in high esteem.