Janáček: a Moravian composer
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) may not be as famous as Bach, Mozart or Beethoven, indeed he may not even be as widely known as his countrymen Smetana or Dvořák, but he is nevertheless an amazingly interesting character whose music has much to say to audiences today. What is the most astounding thing about Janáček is that he didn’t really come into his prime until very late on in his life. He was 50 when his first really successful opera Jenůfa was performed in Brno, his home, the capital of Moravia, a part of the then Habsburg Empire. The operas which followed Jenůfa were problematic and difficult. Janáček was also unsuccessful at getting Jenůfa performed in Prague until 1916 and as such it wasn’t until he was into his sixties that Janáček really became famous. It is only recently that he has become widely renowned.
Janáček’s early music relies heavily on the traditions of Smetana and Dvořák, the main-stream Germanic tradition made Czech. This is clearly heard in his first opera Šárka and some of his early songs and choruses. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that Janáček found one of the most powerful elements of his idiom, that of folk music. But rather than merely paying lip-service to the style he incorporated into a more fluid, ‘arty’ mode of composition, and this can clearly be heard in Jenůfa. Even this more accomplished folksy style was considered far too provincial for the Prague audiences, though the work has really remained the composer’s most popular, and for a first time listener this and a quick listen to Šárka may be a place to start.
Janáček’s operas are frequently concerned with desperate situations, and claustrophobic atmospheres, which some may consider too depressing for further investigation. Beneath this surface, however, they are wonderfully enlightening and humane works. The operas have been compared to early 20th century soap-operas, and certainly the situations presented in Jenůfa and Kát’a Kabanová are filled with that type of melodramatic angst. After Jenůfa, a further investigation may lead onto Kát’a Kabanová.
The composer wasn’t always obsessed with such disheartening topics though, as his opera Příhody Lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen), which was based on a cartoon shows. A cheery work about a sassy vixen, not dissimilar to Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox, it shows the composer in his most hopeful vein, and although the Vixen is killed by being too cunning by half, the end of the opera contains life enhancing but humorous moral. The listener or beginner looking for a step away from the moody dramatics of normal operas would find Příhody Lišky Bystroušky (also available in an English translation recording) amazingly joyful. The BBC have produced a new cartoon of the opera, which would also be an ideal introduction.
Other composers working at same time
Edvard Greig 1843 – 1907
Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky 1840 – 1893
Giuseppe Verdi 1813 – 1901
Johannes Brahms 1833 - 1897
Antonin Dvorak 1841 - 1904
Claude Debussy 1862 – 1918
Richard Strauss 1864 – 1949
Camille Saint-Saens 1835-1921
Contemporary Moravians of note
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernts, Violinist 1814-1865
Gregor Mendel, Biologist & Father of genetics: 1822-1884
Sigmund Freud, Father of psychoanalysis: 1856-1939
Alfons Mucha, Painter: 1860-1939
Find out more
Janáček and Beethoven homepage
Janáček and the Glagolitic Mass
Beethoven and the Mass in C
Beethoven and deafness