Leoš Janáček: From the House of the Dead, Amarus & The Cunning Little Vixen
6/1/2015, 11 Tracks, 1:15:22
Featuring
Václav Neumann
Věra Soukupová
Vilém Přibyl
František Jílek
Czech Philharmonic
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Leoš Janáček
Did you know?
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Performer Biography
Václav Neumann, a Czech conductor, was a violist in the Smetana Quartet, which he founded in 1945, before becoming a renowned conductor.
Composition History
Janáček's final stage work, From the House of the Dead, is based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel Notes from the House of the Dead.
Composer Biography
Leoš Janáček, the composer, was the tenth child of a poor family of schoolmasters and was sent to board as a chorister with the Austin Friars.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The core message of Janáček's From the House of the Dead is encapsulated in the words at the head of the manuscript: 'There is a divine spark in every human being'.
Composition History
Janáček's opera The Cunning Little Vixen was inspired by stories from Rudolf Těsnohlídek, which Janáček discovered through captions for drawings in a Brno newspaper.
Critical Reception
The first performance of Janáček's cantata Amarus in 1900 was poorly received, with amateur performers giving a 'pallid rendering' of the work.
Composition History
Janáček's cantata Amarus, based on a poem by Jaroslav Vrchlický, tells the story of a young monk who dies from the desire for life and love.
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