John Tyrrell

I very much enjoyed listening to the CD. For a whole number of reasons. First the concentration on three of the parts of the Dvacet šest lidových balad. These are generally not well known, especially the Pět národních písní, so it’s an unusual pleasure for me to hear them again, and hear them not in their constituent cycles but jumbled up, so one has new and interesting juxtapositions, not least because of the variety of vocal combinations (solo/chorus/male/female). And it also meant that you could include, for instance, a solo woman’s voice in the otherwise male no. 12 or the men’s voice in no.11 where the words suggest that this is appropriate.

In the Janáček catalogue that I and a couple of colleagues published in England in 1997, we took the radical step of integrating all the folksong arrangements into the main body of the catalogue, so that Písně dětvanské (JW V/11) was in the solo vocal group – together with Zápisník zmizelého, JW V/12) and Lidová nokturna (IV/32) was in the chorus group – together with Kantor Halfar (JW IV/33), etc. In traditional Czech Janáček catalogues all the folksong arrangements are lumped together in a special ‘folk-music arrangements’ ghetto and not seen as independent compositions by Janáček. We considered them to be on an artistic equal footing and we wanted to draw attention to their qualities as such – just as Čierna zem is doing.

Of course what is distinctive about the collection is the re-allocation of the piano accompaniment to traditional folk instruments, notably the cimbál (cimbalom) and the small string ensemble. For me this was particularly fascinating since in my Janáček monograph I spent a chapter trying to show how the piano-accompanied folksong arrangements were Janáček’s ‘workshop’, how his imitation of the cimbalom by the piano liberated his piano accompaniment style and indeed his whole style. One only has to compare the plain chordal accompaniment of his early Královničky (JW IV/20) with that of the Moravská lidová poezie v písních (JW V/2) just a few years later (but after much immersion in folksong work) to see the enormous gain in creating interesting textures in the piano accompaniment. To have this process reversed, i.e. the cimbalom-inspired piano part turned into an actual cimbalom part made even clearer what I was trying to say.

I liked the variety of the accompaniments that you use. Obviously combining the indoor non-folkloristic harmonium with the outdoor, folkoristic cimbalom rather goes against ‘back-to-folklore’ approach, although the sound combination itself is interesting. I thought having the three instrumental pieces (from Po zarostlěm chodníčku) on the same disk and played on cimbalom was an inspired step, helping to emphasize the close connection between Janáček’s seemingly non-folkloristic words with the folkloristic. For instance in track 2 it it obvious that the piano part is inspired by the cimbalom in the little ostinatos – an early example of Janáček’s typical včasovky. The number where I felt the cimbalom least appropriate was the final track.

Although one of the texts (‘Your first Janáček’) rather suggests that this is Janáček for beginners, I think that the much of it will also help more experienced Janáček listeners to hear some of the music with new ears. The disk is very nicely presented (I like the way the predominant black colour of the covers reflects the title) and surprisingly generous in the prose commentaries. Miloš’s texts are very informative, and there is full information on where everything has come from for those that want to pursue the originals. The English translations clear and accurate (and folksong texts are often terrible to translate).

The performances are lovely: beautiful, clear non-operatic voices with minimal vibrato and virtuoso playing on the cimbalom.
So I think that the participants and producers of the disk should be very satisfied.

With all good wishes

John Tyrrell

Nottingham, 22 September 2012

http://cs.wikipedia.org/…ohn_Tyrrell_(muzikolog)

John Tyrrell

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