Product Description
Over the last decade of his life the Czech composer Leos Janacek wrote regularly to his 'hoped-for wife' Kamila Stosslova. A comprehensive selection of these letters has been translated and edited by John Tyrrell, the renowned Janacek scholar. Supported by a diary of meetings, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters and a selection of mostly unknown photographs, this remarkable book illuminates the inner life of one of the greatest opera composers of the twentieth century.Amazon.com Review
Leos Janácek met Kamila Stösslová in 1917,when he was 63 and she was 25. She--not his wife of nearly 50years--was the Czech composer's great love. Janácek's passionfor Stösslová coincided with the astonishing artisticflowering of his last decade, and he considered her the inspirationfor several works, especially Kát'aKabanová and the String Quartet No. 2("Intimate Letters"). Since both were married to others and lived indifferent cities, they interacted largely through theircorrespondence, which provides an incomparable view of one of the 20thcentury's quirkiest and most rewarding composers.

Janácek's letters are filled with an ebullient poetry; heinvented fanciful metaphors--to describe Kamila's breasts, hisloneliness--and wove variations on them in letter afterletter. (Selections from Stösslová's few surviving lettersare interspersed; Janácek burned most, at her request.) Afterthe relationship became more intimate in 1927, he wrote almost dailyand his language grew rapturous. He refers to her as his wife orimagines that she's pregnant (though they evidently never consummatedthe "marriage").

While holding to the busy schedule of an increasingly famous composer,he was more and more obsessed withStösslová. Janácek's late music jumps with restlessinvention from one theme to another; it's not hard to observe asimilar habit of mind here, as he shifts from Wagnerian flights ofecstasy to fussy advice about Kamila's health. Janácek scholarJohn Tyrrell, who edited the memoirs of the composer's wife, My Life withJanácek, provides illuminating editorialguidance. --David Olivenbaum ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intimate Letters -Leos Janacek toKamila Stosslova
I love the book,,,,,and it is easy to carry, I took it with me to travel, even waiting in line for check out at market,,,wonderful book. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Czech Music Information on April 1, 2010. The length of the article is 519 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Leos Janacek.(Sound recording review)
Author: Jindrich Balek
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2010
Publisher: Czech Music Information
Issue: 2Page: 45(1)

Article Type: Sound recording review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first major set of essays on the Czech composer Leos Janá^Dvcek, widely considered one of the most important composers of the early twentieth century. The essays deal with a range of subjects relating to opera, symphonic poem, instrumental music, cultural context, reception, and Janá^Dvcek as music theorist and analyst. Some topics, such as the sources of his musical expressivity, narrative, and Jan^Dvacek as musical analyst and realist have hitherto received little attention, while other, more conventional topics, such as "speech melody" and Janá^Dvcek's ethnographic activities, are reappraised. ... Read more

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The Glagolitic Mass, written between 1926 and 1927, is not only one of Janá^D&cek's most important works: it is also a masterpiece of the twentieth-century choral repertoire. In this fascinating description of the Mass and its history, Paul Wingfield brings together information on all significant aspects of the work, including much that is new. In particular, he quotes important letters from and to the composer that have never previously been published. Chapters on the music itself offer a full synopsis of the work, the first in-depth study of the musical organization, and key interpretations of the work by Janá^D&cek and others. ... Read more

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A Cycle of Love Songs Translated by the Nobel Laureate

"Dappled woodland light,
Spring well chill and bright,
Eyes like stars at night,
Open knees so white.
Four things death itself won't cover,
Unforgettable forever."

In 1917, while reading his local newspaper, Leos Janacek discovered the poems that he was to set to music in his song cycle Diary of One Who Vanished. Written by Ozef Kalda and published anonymously, they tell the story of a farmer's boy who abandons his home because he has fallen in love with a Gypsy. These new English versions by Seamus Heaney were commissioned by the English National Opera for a series of international performances, which opened in Dublin in October 1999.
... Read more

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Definitive biography on the composer Janacek and his works. Wel illustrated with photos and detailed explanation on the development of his work with sections of sheet music quoted inthe text. ... Read more

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Kát'a Kabanová is both the first Janácek opera to have been performed in Britain and the one which has received the most productions in Britain and the USA. In this book John Tyrrell brings together letters, early reviews and other documents (most of them translated from Czech for the first time) on the opera's composition and its early performances. A group of key interpretations of the opera ranges from one by the opera's German translator and Janácek's first biographer Max Brod to specially commissioned essays by Wilfrid Mellers and by David Pountney, producer of the highly successful Welsh National Opera/Scottish Opera Janácek cycle. ... Read more