Sinfonietta für Orchester by Leoš Janáček, and: Taras Bulba: Rhapsodie für Orchester by Leoš Janáček, and: Zápisník zmizelého = The Diary of One Who Disappeared = Tagebuch eines Verschollenen by Leoš Janáček

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sinfonietta für Orchester by Leoš Janáček, and: Taras Bulba: Rhapsodie für Orchester by Leoš Janáček, and: Zápisník zmizelého = The Diary of One Who Disappeared = Tagebuch eines Verschollenen by Leoš Janáček Nigel Simeone Leoš Janáček. Sinfonietta für Orchester (1926). Herausgegeben von Jiří Zahrádka. Vienna: Universal Edition, 2017. [Preface in Ger., and Eng., p. vii–lxvi; sources, p. lxvii–lxxiii; score, p. 1–116; ISMN 979-0-008-08789-9; ISBN 978-3-7024-7460-7; pub. no. UE 36 503; €39.95.] Leoš Janáček. Taras Bulba: Rhapsodie für Orchester (1915, 1918, 1927). Herausgegeben von Jiří Zahrádka. Vienna: Universal Edition, 2019. [Preface in Ger., and Eng., p. vii-lii; sources, p. liii–lvi; score, p. 1-110; ISMN 979-0-008-08951-0; ISBN 978-3-7024-7623-6; pub. no. UE 36 505; €52.50.] Leoš Janáček. Zápisník zmizelého = The Diary of One Who Disappeared = Tagebuch eines Verschollenen. K vydání připravil = Edited by = Herausgegeben von Jiří Zahrádka. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2016. [Preface in Czech, Eng., and Ger., p. iv-xxii; plates, p. xxiii–xxiv; score, p. 1-63; crit. report, p. 64-70; ISMN 979-0-2601-0777-9; pub. no. BA 9575; €19.95.] Jiří Zahrádka, Director of the Janáček Archive in Brno, has already produced some of the most important criticalpractical editions of Janáček's works, including the operas Šárka (Universal Edition [hereafter UE]), Fate (Bärenreiter), The Excursions of Mr Brouček (UE), The Cunning Little Vixen (UE) and The Makropulos Affair (UE). In addition to these, he has edited two versions of the Glaglolitic Mass (Bärenreiter), and smaller works like the sextet Mládí and In the Mists (G. Henle). He has now added to this formidable list of achievements with brand new editions of Janáček's two most important orchestral works and the enthralling songcycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared. The Sinfonietta was first published in January 1927 in two quite different editions: a miniature score issued by Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag and UE (115 pp., plate number U.E. 8680, printed from engraved plates) and a full score produced by UE (72 pp., plate number U.E. 8679, printed in autographie). Since then, the publishing history of the work has included revised [End Page 639] and corrected versions of both editions by Karl-Heinz Füssl (Philharmonia/UE, 1980) and another edition by Jarmil Burghauser (Eulenburg, 1979). An edition by Miroslav Barvík and Reiner Zimmermann (C. F. Peters, Leipzig, 1980) was the first to include a detailed critical commentary. Performances have almost always used the original UE printed parts or the corrected set prepared at the same time as Füssl's revisions. Now UE has produced a new edition that contains a number of revelations about the genesis of the work itself, as well as solving some of the problems in the score. Jiří Zahrádka's preface is the most comprehensive account ever published of the evolution of the Sinfonietta, and it sheds new light on the initial inspiration for the work (providing a firm date for the concert in Písek at which Janáček heard—in company with Kamila Stösslová—a band playing fanfares), on the work's connections with the 1926 Sokol Rally in Prague, and with its early performance history. As for the score itself, Zahrádka includes a number of footnotes that make for intriguing reading, and a detailed critical report is also available from the publisher (UE 37 871). The annotations in the score often refer to changes made during rehearsals by Václav Talich (who conducted the premiere on 26 June 1926), all apparently made with Janácrek's consent as he was present at the rehearsals (and mostly in earlier scores, but without explanation of their status). Accordingly, these changes are accepted as part of the definitive text, including the decision to play the third movement with all the orchestral violas in place of Janáček's original plan to have it performed by a viola d'amore (with Janáček, this was always more...