BaL 6.11.21 - The music of Jan Dismas Zelenka

[crb11]

I was very pleasantly surprised by what I heard: nothing I've come across before of his has particularly inspired me (mainly what's in the 50CD DHM box) but it feels to me like more unrestrained readings bring out a distinctive and interesting voice - notably the major key Requiem! I'll need to relisten to remember exactly what was what, but think at least one of the Trio Sonata recordings and the Anima Aeterna disc are worth further exploration.

[jayne lee wilson]

What is NIBRU?
Disappointed by the Foumites lack of enthusiasm for Zelenka, and the hijacking of this thread

Just as I said in #42, The Zelenka Label par excellence.......

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/search?q=zelenka+nibiru&i=boutique

...so dedicated, so inspired and above all - impassioned and individual, leaving earlier recordings far behind.... a superb achievement....go in anywhere there and fill your room with glory!

[MickyD]

What is NIBRU?
Disappointed by the Foumites lack of enthusiasm for Zelenka, and the hijacking of this thread

I will be contributing once I've had a chance to get round to listening to the programme! My collection of Zelenka is disappointingly small, though I have had that double Accent CD of the trio sonatas for many years, as well as the Harnoncourt Hipocondrie - plus this one which seems to have escaped mention so far.

[jayne lee wilson]

I did list some of the Bernius Releases in my #3....among the best alternatives to Nibiru, as is Vaclav Luks on ZigZag...

[MickyD]

I did list some of the Bernius Releases in my #3....among the best alternatives to Nibiru, as is Vaclav Luks on ZigZag...

Do you know the DHM Bernius disc that I mentioned?

[RichardB]

Do you know the DHM Bernius disc that I mentioned?

I do. I think it was the first CD of JDZ's choral music I heard and I still like it very much, even though there are so many more other excellent ones these days, by Václav Luks and Adam Viktora to name but two - in fact I'm listening now to the latter's Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, a work I hadn't heard before. These Nibiru releases are as Jayne says excellent, the ones I've heard anyway, although it's disappointing that Qobuz don't carry the liner notes.

[jayne lee wilson]

Do you know the DHM Bernius disc that I mentioned?

Absolutely.... it was Bernius' first Zelenka issue, but with Tafelmusik in 1990.
Later he recorded three more masses for Carus/SWR (Dei Patris, Votiva, St Joseph, 1998, 2008, 2018) again with the Kammerchor, but with the Barockorchester Stuttgart just that bit more idiomatic and individual. Better recorded too, with a lighter, more agile chorus. The Missa dei Patris and the Votiva run to around 70', and have some of his most beautiful arias and choruses.

It is a pity about those Nibiru notes absent from Qobuz. The are very good and constitute an education about Zelenka in themselves. Nibiru do produce a lovely, beautifully-artworked album, so perhaps they want to encourage the purchase.... I was only too happy to do so during the Summer 2013 heatwave, after the many positive IRR reviews back then. Music you can get lost among for weeks....

[ardcarp]

Did not enjoy the Zelenka Building a Library very much, far too fast and gushing for my taste, I really got no real overview of the Composer but Dr. French is not my favourite by a long way so it may just be me.

Sorry you felt like that! Hannah did a good job I thought, given the almost impossible task of doing a 'Composer of the Week' in about one-tenth of the time. Maybe a survey of Z's entire output was a poor choice for BAL. I have (as mentioned above) taken part in quite a lot of Zelenka's oeuvres, mainly Masses, and definitely regard him as a fine composer. Although roughly a contemporary of Bach, he was in many ways more modern in his harmonic language and structure. One could almost imagine one was listening to bits of a Haydn Mass at times. And he did use some unusual chord juxtapositions. He had a melancholic side as Hannah mentioned, but he could do the trumpets-and-drums pretty effectively as well.

[richardfinegold]

Sorry you felt like that! Hannah did a good job I thought, given the almost impossible task of doing a 'Composer of the Week' in about one-tenth of the time. Maybe a survey of Z's entire output was a poor choice for BAL. I have (as mentioned above) taken part in quite a lot of Zelenka's oeuvres, mainly Masses, and definitely regard him as a fine composer. Although roughly a contemporary of Bach, he was in many ways more modern in his harmonic language and structure. One could almost imagine one was listening to bits of a Haydn Mass at times. And he did use some unusual chord juxtapositions. He had a melancholic side as Hannah mentioned, but he could do the trumpets-and-drums pretty effectively as well.

I tried playing the program which was listed on the Web Site as being over 2 hours. I know the BAL last approximately 1 hour. Instead of Hannah French talking about Zelenka there was Andrew and JoAnna McGregor and a lots of non Zelenka on a playlist.

[jayne lee wilson]

[QUOTE=richardfinegold;865379]

Sorry you felt like that! Hannah did a good job I thought, given the almost impossible task of doing a 'Composer of the Week' in about one-tenth of the time. Maybe a survey of Z's entire output was a poor choice for BAL. I have (as mentioned above) taken part in quite a lot of Zelenka's oeuvres, mainly Masses, and definitely regard him as a fine composer. Although roughly a contemporary of Bach, he was in many ways more modern in his harmonic language and structure. One could almost imagine one was listening to bits of a Haydn Mass at times. And he did use some unusual chord juxtapositions. He had a melancholic side as Hannah mentioned, but he could do the trumpets-and-drums pretty effectively as well.[/QUOTE

and from richardfinegold

I tried playing the program which was listed on the Web Site as being over 2 hours. I know the BAL last approximately 1 hour. Instead of Hannah French talking about Zelenka there was Andrew and JoAnna McGregor and a lots of non Zelenka on a playlist.

Try here.... move the slider on to around 29-30'....the BaL always starts around 30' in to RR.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0011bvb

Hit "read more" and you see that the piano reviews begin at 10:45, around 105' in...

[Wolfram]

One could almost imagine one was listening to bits of a Haydn Mass at times.

Interesting you say that; I thought I was listening to Mozart at one point.

[jayne lee wilson]

Interesting you say that; I thought I was listening to Mozart at one point.

Yes, interesting, if you recall that Zelenka died in 1745.....so Haydn and Mozart may very well show his thrilling and vital influences. Jan-Dismas (which will auto correct to Dismal, funny but absolutely untrue to the music!) was a true original, and for me a musical addiction. Bach and Telemann admired him greatly.

Still haven't heard Hannah French on this, sorry.... and TV Sport is very distracting today...

[kernelbogey]

Jan-Dismas (which will auto correct to Dismal, funny but absolutely untrue to the music!) was a true original...

...though apparently (according to Dr French) subject to melancholy.

[jayne lee wilson]

...though apparently (according to Dr French) subject to melancholy.

Yes, but - heroically, if he was subject to clinical depression - the music rarely shows it....
"Rage, rage, against the dying of the light!"

Anyone who suffers such emotional dislocations and sometimes felt, de profundis clamavi, the paradoxical need to escape - into ecstasy, joy, affirmation, if only it could be like this!

One of the Reasons Art Matters so much....

[MickyD]

I really enjoyed this survey... I wouldn't say no to any of the discs, but there's no doubt in my mind in terms of quality and content that the Luks/Accent disc is next on my shopping list.