レオシュ・ヤナーチェク（1854－1928）：オペラ「利口な女狐の物語」の大組曲（ヤクプ・フルーシャ編曲）

リヒャルト・シュトラウス（1864－1949）：アルプス交響曲　作品64

首席指揮者ヤクプ・フルーシャ率いるバンベルク交響楽団のコンサートでは、世代が近い2人の作曲家の作品の、作品へ自然を投影する手法の大きな違いを紹介します。

レオシュ・ヤナーチェクが並外れた作曲家でありながら、交響楽団のための楽曲をわずかしか作曲しなかったために、ヤナーチェクの死後短期間に多くの指揮者たちが、交響楽団の演奏向けに、彼のオペラのスコアをオペラ組曲として編曲しました。

そんな組曲をまず初めにオペラ『利口な女狐の物語』から生み出したのは、才能ある指揮者、ヴーツラフ・タリフでした。その際はもちろん第1幕部分を利用したにとどまりました。2017年に同じオペラから組曲を作るために、単にオーケストラの演奏部分だけを使うことを決めたのが、指揮者ヤクプ・フルーシャでした。彼は、『利口な女狐』において、歌が入らない部分が3分の1以上に上ることを良く分かっていたからです。そうやって、オペラの幕を時系列で追いながら、オーケストラのために作曲された部分を演奏させる組曲が出来上がったのです。

『アルプス交響曲』は、戦時中の1914－1915に作曲された、リヒャルト・シュトラウスの交響詩の中でも演奏される機会が少ない曲です。作曲家は『家庭交響曲』を作曲した後、オペラの作曲にのみ従事することを考えていましたが、幸いその抱負は破られるに至りました。ガーミッシュにあった田舎の家の窓から、アルプスのツークシュピッツェの山頂や壮大な山脈ヴェッテルシュテインの美しい景色が望め、この自然の風景を楽譜に残そうと決めたのです。

シュトラウスの交響詩はもっぱら目に見える事実を描写する、印象的な音楽によるアルプスのパノラマを生み出す方法をとり、自然との精神的関係性を表すものではありません。この音楽の絵画は特別な作品です；楽譜の中には、カウベル、あるいは雷を表す楽器を使用していることがよみとれます。この交響曲が初めてベルリンで演奏された時には、牧歌と評されました（同様に、ヤナーチェクは自ら作曲した『利口な女狐の物語』を「森の牧歌」と名付けています）。それまでのシュトラウス作品にみられなかった、素朴といえるほど一定の簡素さについて、作曲家自身が次のように述べています「私は一度、乳を出す牝牛のように作曲してみたかったんだ。」

フィンランドの伝説には、豊かさと世界の連続性を約束する、サンポと言われる造形品のことが語られています。『カレワラ』は、医師で言語学者のエリアス・リョンロート（1802－1884）が田舎で収集した、元々は完全に口承文芸であったフィンランド・カレリアの一連の伝説です。『S.A.M.P.O.』は『カレワラ』をインスピレーションの源とし、そのモチーフや登場人物を近未来の物語に置き換えて表現しました。このオペラは音楽祭ヤナーチェク・ブルノがヤナーチェク音楽院にオペラを発注したことで生まれたもので、ヤナーチェク音楽院の2つの学部が初めて共同した作品であり、同時に世界初演のオペラでもあります。

フィンランドの伝説には、豊かさと世界の連続性を約束する、サンポと言われる造形品のことが語られています。『カレワラ』は、医師で言語学者のエリアス・リョンロート（1802－1884）が田舎で収集した、元々は完全に口承文芸であったフィンランド・カレリアの一連の伝説です。『S.A.M.P.O.』は『カレワラ』をインスピレーションの源とし、そのモチーフや登場人物を近未来の物語に置き換えて表現しました。このオペラは音楽祭ヤナーチェク・ブルノがヤナーチェク音楽院にオペラを発注したことで生まれたもので、ヤナーチェク音楽院の2つの学部が初めて共同した作品であり、同時に世界初演のオペラでもあります。

レオシュ・ヤナーチェク（1854－1928）：1905年10月１日（1905年10月1日　街頭にて） JW VIII/19

草陰の小径 第1集、第2集 　JW VIII/17

主題と変奏　JW VIII/6

霧の中　JW VIII/22

Leoš Janáček (1854–1928): 1. X. 1905 (From the Street, 1st October 1905), JW VIII/19

On an Overgrown Path, series 1, 2, JW VIII/17

Thema con variazioni, JW VIII/6

In the Mists, JW VIII/22

A piano recital by one of the most gifted pianists of the younger generation is always one of the highlights of festival concerts. Jan Bartoš recorded and published Janáček´s complete piano works with Supraphon in 2019, and immediately received accolades from foreign reviewers, such as the prestigious Editor´s Choice award from Gramophone magazine.

The composition 1. X. 1905 (“From the Street, 1st October 1905”) was created spontaneously as a reaction to a tragedy which took place during demonstrations for a Czech university in Brno. After years of efforts to establish a Czech higher education institution in Brno, the government agreed that Brno citizens should be allowed to decide for themselves about whether a Czech university should be created or not. However, as Brno was predominantly German, the German representatives of the city were afraid of Czechs gaining greater influence and so convened a “Volkstag” in Brno on 1st October 1905. German associations and organizations from far and wide were invited to demonstrate their opposition to the foundation of a Czech University in Brno. In response, the Czech citizens of the city organized a large anti-German demonstration. Street fights took place between the two camps, and the police and subsequently also the army were called in. During one of the battles, a young Czech worker named František Pavlík was killed. Filled with impressions from this tragic event, Janáček sat down to write the originally three-movement composition From the Street, I. X. 1905. However, shortly before its premiere on 27th January 1906 he burnt the last movement, and after another performance in Prague he even threw the whole manuscript into the Vltava River. Fortunately, the first performer of the composition, the pianist Ludmila Tučková, kept the original copy and made it public quite some time later, in 1924. Thanks to her, this piano piece, forgotten by Janáček for many years, has been preserved.

The piano cycle of poetic compositions On an Overgrown Path was created gradually during 1900, 1908 and 1911. Janáček wrote the first five compositions of the first series of the cycle in 1900. They were published by a teacher from Ivančice, Emil Kolář, as small compositions for the harmonium in several books for music students entitled Slavonic Melodies. The editor, Jan Branberger, played a role in popularising the cycle when he arranged for the compositions to be printed by a Prague publisher, Bedřich Kočí, in 1908. The interest of publishers in the compositions led Janáček to the creation of other parts, and so the cycle grew to comprise a total of ten pieces, to which the composer assigned poetic titles. On 30^th September 1911, shortly before the first series of the cycle was published by Píša´s publishing house, Janáček released the first composition from a new series of the cycle On an Overgrown Path in the Večery fiction section of the Lidové noviny newspaper, this time without a poetic name. The printed source was based on Sedláček´s undated copy containing a total of three numbered compositions, all without a name, the last of which is basically a sketch that Bartoš, for obvious reasons, did not include in the second series.

Janáček greatly valued the piano compositions Thema con variazioni (or also Zdenka Variations) at the time of its creation, and he even labelled them Opus No. 1, even though he had composed many other pieces before. The creation of this composition dates to the beginning of 1880, i.e. to the period when the composer was studying at the Conservatory in Leipzig. He wrote the piece under the direction of his professor, Leo Grill, and dedicated it to his fiancée Zdenka Schulzová. For the young Janáček it was an important work in which he tested his ability to compose in the style of Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Liszt or Brahms.

Janáček completed his piano cycle In the Mists in April 1912. Not a long time before, in 1910, he had moved to a new house in the garden of Brno’s organ school with his wife and maid, and there, hiding from the world, with broken self-confidence and in a melancholy mood, he composed his last more extensive work for solo piano. He worked on it shortly after listening to piano compositions by the French composer Claude Debussy, and it is no coincidence that his dreamlike melancholic work contains elements of musical impressionism. The cycle In the Mists won the first prize in a contest for composers run by the Club of Friends of Art, which was supposed to publish the winning work. However, Janáček left the opportunity to have a composition published to his pupil, Jaroslav Kvapil, who came second in the contest. In the Mists was played for the first time by Marie Dvořáková in Kroměříž on 7^th December 1913.

Author: Jiří Zahrádka

Take a closer look at the opera! Take a step behind the curtain with us. A programme designed for all curious people, big and small, who would like to get to know something new about the world of an opera house. A 70-minute interactive, adventurous and mainly entertaining journey into the heart of opera with the soloists, choir and orchestra of the Janáček Opera, National Theatre Brno.

Your guide will be the chief conductor, Marko Ivanović.

クロード・ドビュッシー（1862‐1918）：フランスの3つの歌　L115、歌とピアノのための作品

クロード・ドビュッシー：バラード　L70 、ピアノのための作品

グスタフ・マーラー（1860－1911）：亡き子を偲ぶ歌、歌とピアノのための作品

レオシュ・ヤナーチェク（1854‐1928）：モラビアの民俗歌曲　JW V/2、歌とピアノのための作品

レオシュ・ヤナーチェク：1905年10月1日（1905年10月1日、街頭にて）JW VIII/19

This recital by the outstanding singer Tomáš Král will present songs by authors who were born within the space of ten years and are some of the most respected authors that opened the door to the musical breakthrough of the 20^th century. The songs presented at the concert were also born in close proximity timewise – between the years 1892-1904. So close, and yet so distant…

The songs Trois chansons de France by Claude Debussy (1862–1918) were created in 1904 and dedicated by the author to the singer Emma Bardac. There are three songs: two are roundels set to verse from the 15^th century by Charles d´Orléans, while the third was composed to a 17^th century poem by Tristan L´Hermite.

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) wrote his Kindertotenliede in 1901 and 1904. The composer drew from a collection by Friedrich Rückert from 1833–34. From more than 428 poems he chose only five for his cycle. The songs were originally written for alto voice with an orchestral accompaniment. The melodies of the songs, in whose texts Rückert reacted to the death of children, make an extremely strong impression with their extraordinarily natural character (which approaches that of folk songs). The cycle is one of the highlights of Mahler´s song output.

Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs is one of the most extensive cycles by Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), being made up of 53 songs. The composer worked on it between 1892-1901, so within a period that’s also connected with his work on the opera Jenůfa. Janáček was intensively engaged in folk music and song collection from approximately 1888, and the peak of this activity dates back to the 1890s, when this interest was closely connected to his compositional work. He remained faithful to folk songs throughout his life, however. He also devoted many years to adapting folk songs to be sung with a piano accompaniment. He experimented with them to some extent, and as a result these songs form a very distinctive part of the composer´s oeuvre. In 1892, the Šolc publishing house released the second edition of the Bouquet of National Moravian Songs, which was compiled by František Bartoš and Lev Janáček. On that occasion the publisher asked Janáček to add piano accompaniments to the songs. Janáček did so for fifteen songs which Šolc published in a first book in 1893. The second book was published in 1902, when the publisher printed the remaining 38 songs. They weren’t released together as a set until 1908, when they were published under the name Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs. The songs were performed for the first time (and only four of them) in Brno in 1904. The cycle was probably not performed completely during the composer´s life.

Two piano compositions will also be performed at the concert: Ballade slave by Claude Debussy from 1890, and 1. X. 1905 (From the Street, 1^st October 1905), which Leoš Janáček composed in 1905.

Author: Jiří Zahrádka

レオシュ・ヤナーチェク（1854－1924）：永遠の福音　JW III/8、ヤロスラフ・ヴルフリツキー詩、ソロ、混声合唱、オーケストラのためのレジェンド

グラゴール・ミサ　JW III/9、ソロ、混声合唱、パイプオルガンとオーケストラのための作品

Leoš Janáček (1854–1924): The Eternal Gospel, JW III/ 8, a legend for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra based on a poem by Jaroslav Vrchlický

The Glagolitic Mass, JW III/9, for soloists, mixed choir, organ and orchestra

The gallery of the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Old Brno was a very significant place for Janáček. He was raised in the Augustinian abbey from the age of 11, sang as a choral scholar in the Old Brno basilica gallery, and subsequently also played the organ there. After Pavel Křížkovský left for Olomouc, Janáček became the director of the choir in 1872.

The legend in verses with the title The Eternal Gospel – Legend 1240 from the collection Frescoes and Tapestries published in 1891 is inspired by the teachings of the medieval monk Joachim of Fiore (1132-1202), whose interpretation of history culminates in the period of Holy Spirit, or in other words the love of all mankind for all of creation. It is somewhat symbolic that Janáček set this message to music shortly before the outbreak of World War I. We do not know exactly when the composition was made, but the first document confirming the existence of the completed piece dates from 1914. In Janáček´s The Eternal Gospel, the prophecy of Joachim of Fiore is divided into four parts with an emphasis on the tenor part and the choir. The Gospel is closely connected musically with the opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, and not only as far as the instruments are concerned. The premiere took place on 5^th February 1917 staged by the Prague singing association Hlahol and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra led by the conductor Jaroslav Křička.

The Glagolitic Mass is undoubtedly one of the foremost spiritual compositions of the 20^th, or indeed any century. Janáček gave some thought to the composition in 1920 but didn´t get round to commencing purposeful work on it until 1926, when he composed the piece during a rainy stay at the spa in Luhačovice. The use of the Church Slavonic language is not surprising in Janáček´s case because the monastery in Old Brno, where he spent the latter part of his childhood, was a centre of the cult of Cyril and Methodius. Janáček himself, as a choral scholar, took part in the grand Velehrad celebrations held to mark the occasion of the 1000^th anniversary of Cyril´s death. The work was generously conceived for soloists, choir, orchestra and organ, and its premiere was performed by Beseda brněnská with the National Theatre orchestra on 5^th December 1927 under the baton of Jaroslav Kvapil.

The Glagolitic Mass is one of the most oft-performed spiritual compositions of the 20^th century, and it still amazes and enchants through its novelty, energy and tenderness. Even though Janáček dedicated this composition to a high dignitary of the Catholic church, the Archbishop of Olomouc Leopold Prečan, the spiritual dimension of the work goes beyond Catholic doctrine and aims somewhere towards Janáček-style pantheism.

Autor: Jiří Zahrádka