/ Piano 4 Mains
SKU: BA.BA06848
ISBN 9790006483303. 34.4 x 27 cm inches. Text: Svatopluk Cech.
Over the years Janácek’s uvre has increasingly received the recognition it so richly merits and performances of his works are becoming more and more frequent. This development is, however, offset by a manuscript tradition so disorderly that some of Janácek’s works continue, as before, to be played in versions which are heavily adapted, corrupt or otherwise contrary to the composer’s intentions. Thus, a critical edition of Janácek’s music is indispensable for scholars and performers alike.This editon presents an authentic printed text based on all available sources for each work. In addition to the musical text, each volume also contains a critical report (Czech / German), a rendition of deleted or rejected versions, and a comprehensive appendix of facsimiles.
About Barenreiter Urtext
What can I expect from a Barenreiter Urtext edition?
MUSICOLOGICALLY SOUND - A reliable musical text based on all available sources - A description of the sources - Information on the genesis and history of the work - Valuable notes on performance practice - Includes an introduction with critical commentary explaining source discrepancies and editorial decisions ... AND PRACTICAL - Page-turns, fold-out pages, and cues where you need them - A well-presented layout and a user-friendly format - Excellent print quality - Superior paper and binding
SKU: BA.BA06861
ISBN 9790260104211. 34.3 x 27 cm inches.
LeoÅ¡ Janácek’s symphonic fragment Dunaj (The Danube) dates from the period of the composition of “Katya Kabanovaâ€. The composer was not concerned with a musical-picturesque description of a river landscape, but with the mythical link between women’s destinies and water.“Pale green waves of the Danube! There are so many of you, and one followed by another. You remain interlocked in a continuous flow. You surprise yourselves where you ended up – on the Czech shores! Look back downstream and you will have an impression of what you have left behind in your haste. It pleases you here. Here I will rest with my symphony.†Thus LeoÅ¡ Janácek described the idea behind the composition project which occupied him in 1923/24. However, after further work, it remained incomplete in 1926. His “symphony†entitled Dunaj has survived as a continuously-notated, four-movement bundle of sketches in score form. It is one of the works which occupied him until his death. The scholarly reconstruction by the two Brno composers MiloÅ¡ Å tedron and LeoÅ¡ Faltus closely follows the original manuscript.A whole conglomeration of motifs stands behind the incomplete work. What at first seems like a counterpart to Smetana’s Vltava, in fact doesn’t turn out to be a musical depiction of the Danube. On the contrary, the fateful link between the destiny of women, water and death permeates the range of motifs found in the work. It seems to be no coincidence that Janácek, whilst working on the opera Katya Kabanova, in which the Volga, as the river bringing death plays an almost mythical role, planned a Danube symphony, and that its content was linked with the destiny of women: in the sketches, two poems were found which may have provided the stimulus for several movements of the symphony. He copied a poem by Pavla Kriciková into the second movement, in which a girl remarks that whilst bathing in a pond, she was observed by a man. Filled with shame, the young naked woman jumps into the water and drowns. The outer movements likewise draw on the poem “Lola†by the Czech writer Sonja Å pálová, published under the pseudonym Alexander Insarov. This is about a prostitute who asks for her heart’s desire: she is given a palace, but then goes on a long search for it and is finally no longer wanted by anyone. She suffers, feels cold and just wants a warm fire. Janácek adds his remark “she jumps into the Danube†to the inconclusive ending.To these tangible literary models is added Adolf Veselý’s verbal account which reports that the composer wanted to portray “in the Danube, the female sex with all its passions and driving forcesâ€. The third movement is said to characterise the city of Vienna in the form of a woman.It is evident that in his composition, Janácek was not striving for a simple, natural lyricism. The River Danube is masculine in the Slavic language – “ten Dunaj†– and assumes an almost mythical significance in the national character, indeed often also a role bringing death. The four movements are motivically conceived. Elements of sound painting, small wave-like figures in the first movement, motoric, driving movements in the third are obvious evocations of water. And the content and the literary level are easy to discover. The “tremolo of the four timpaniâ€, which was amongst Janácek’s first inspirations, appears in the second movement. It is not difficult to retrace in it the fate of the drowning bather. The oboe enters lamentoso towards the end of the movement over timpani playing tremolo, its descending figure is taken over by the flute, then upper strings and intensified considerably. The motif of drowning – Lola’s despair – returns again in the fourth movement in the clarinet, before the work ends abruptly and dramatically.One special effect is the use of a soprano voice in the motor-driven third movement. The singer vocalises mainly in parallel with the solo oboe, but also in dialogue with other parts such as the viola d’amore, which Janácek used in several late works as a sort of “voice of loveâ€.
SKU: BA.BA06857
ISBN 9790260100503. 34.3 x 27 cm inches.
Janácek’s 2nd String Quartet, “Intimate Lettersâ€, is regarded as a highlight of the modern string quartet literature. It was written during the composer’s last year of life, between 29 January and 19 February 1928, inspired by the ageing Janácek’s exceptional love for Kamila Stösslová. The Moravian Quartet devoted themselves to this impressive work; Janácek attended a total of three of their rehearsals in May and June 1928. This had several consequences, including his abandoning his original idea of using a viola d’amore.After Janácek’s unexpected death (12 August 1928) the uncertain genesis of the work became the greatest problem of the “Intimate Lettersâ€: the surviving copies were not definitively authorised.The editors of this new edition have reverted to Janácek’s autograph sketches as the main, most reliable source and using these as a basis, have reconstructed the work as it stood at the point of Janácek’s death.The musical text therefore contains clear differences in comparison with older editions.
SKU: BA.BA06862
ISBN 9790260105300. 34.2 x 27.3 cm inches. Text Language: Church Slavic.
The Glagolitic Mass, one of the 20th century masterpieces of sacred music, has a very complex genesis and constitutes an intricate editorial challenge.The recently published scholarly-critical edition presents two different versions of the work in two separate volumes: the “September 1927†version (BA 6863) which the composer completed before the first rehearsals and subsequent premiere in Brno and the version he partly reworked for the first Prague performance in April 1928 (BA 6862). This second version was then revised further and published after Janácek’s death by Universal Edition Wien in 1930. Known as the “final authorised versionâ€, it has been newly edited for this publication which is based on the engraver’s copy of the score prepared by Janácek’s regular copyist Václav Sedlácek. The “final authorised version†is the significant version and most suited to performance purposes. The instrumentation is richer, it is more straightforward to rehearse and several important passages are more coherent than in the earlier version. It is the later version that is presented in the vocal score. The Old Church Slavonic text has been prepared by the slavicist Radoslav Vecerka.
SKU: BA.BA06851
ISBN 9790006496723. 34.3 x 27.3 cm inches.
Over the years Janácek’s uvre has increasingly received the recognition it so richly merits and performances of his works are becoming more and more frequent. This development is, however, offset by a manuscript tradition so disorderly that some of Janácek’s works continue, as before, to be played in versions which are heavily adapted, corrupt or otherwise contrary to the composer’s intentions. Thus, a critical edition of Janácek’s music is indispensable for scholars and performers alike.This edition presents an authentic printed text based on all available sources for each work. In addition to the musical text, each volume also contains a critical report (Czech/German), a rendition of deleted or rejected versions, and a comprehensive appendix of facsimiles.
SKU: BA.BA11599-01
ISBN 9790260109841. 34 x 27.5 cm inches. Text Language: Czech, German, English. Preface: Tyrrell, John. Text: Janácek, Leoš / Dostojewskis, Fjodor Michailowitsch.
SKU: BA.BA11543
ISBN 9790260108509. 31 x 24.3 cm inches.
This piece reflects Janácek’s memories of childhood and youth in his native Hukvaldy and the Augustinian Abbey in Brno. Kryštof Maratka, a Czech composer resident in France and a great admirer of Janácek, has arranged the original version to produce a welcome addition to the string quartet repertoire.Youth for wind sextet, is a masterpiece from Janácek’s late period (1924). Maratka has successfully managed to transform the concise winds’ sound that give this work its unique flavour into the timbre of the strings, thereby creating a “third string quartet†of the composer.
