Jan Dismas Zelenka is most certainly on a par with Bach, and I might even say better in some respects. Zelenka brings a light, clear and profound beauty to the Masses, Litanies, Requiems and Holy Week music. He should be better recognised world wide!
Agreed! Not to mention the Oratorios, Cantatas, Motets, Marian Hymns, the vibrant secular vocal works ((rare occurrence for Zelenka, like with Bach) about to upload one, in fact!), and the few astounding instrumental pieces. The quality more than makes up for the quantity :)
My love for Bach no one can change it, but -shame on me- I just discovered Zelenka and I can't stop listening to his music!!! I have more than 6 hours here, in Lamentationes, Requiem, Miserere, Masses, etc. I have not sleep...no care at all. I am in heaven. Thank you, TH-cam, and thank you to all of you who took the time to share this videos with all of us!!!
@@canaleteatrale6662 And one of Bach's sons - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, was given permission by Jan Dismas Zelenka himself to copy out the "Amen" fugue from his Magnificat in D Major (ZWV 108) - score here: th-cam.com/video/BxDkJ566qn0/w-d-xo.html Original manuscript score here also: th-cam.com/video/MWKTjoJl34Y/w-d-xo.html
Zelenka é realmente um grande compositor de alta sensibilidade e grande capacidade técnica. É incrível como é tão pouco conhecido. Talvez por ser tcheco, um país na encruzilhada entre ocidente e oriente europeu, vitima de discriminação.
Il fut un maître de la musique sacrée. Un homme exceptionnel dans la création et la réalisation de ses œuvres !! Toutes choses devient vain quand on l'écoute, la plénitude remplace les tracas au quotidien. Peut-être un pas vers le monde imaginaire que décrit Einstein. ..
JAN DISMAS ZELENKA { LOUNOVICE 1679-1745 DRESDE } LITANIAE XAVERIANAE { ZWV 155 } ENSEMBLE INÉGAL CONDUCTOR ADAM VIKTORA & PRAGUE BAROQUE { COMPOSED 1727 } . Une merveille Soprano ténor basse chœur orchestre grandiose bravo d'un dès grand compositeur de la musique baroque.Merci pour ce concert de ZELENKA qui est Eternel et cette vidéo sublime.
As I keep telling people, Zelenka's music stands out because he was essentially the first home-grown north European composer who integrated elements of the Neapolitan school into his works, and he did so early, when the Neapolitan style had barely made it out of Naples to other parts of Italy. I surmise, there's a good chance that Zelenka met Durante - one of the foremost exponents of the early Neapolitan style - when both were in Vienna from 1717-1719. Zelenka's trip is well-documented, Durante's less so, but they have too many similar touches sprinkled throughout their works for that to be mere accident on Zelenka's part. Obviously, it was Durante who was an influence on Zelenka, less so the other way around. Of course, Zelenka worked in a northern German musical center, Dresden, where tastes remained somewhat conservative, though less so than in most other places throughout Germany. Dresden was a major purchaser of Vivaldi's concerti and other works by Italian composers like Veracini and Lotti but these were Venetians who had not really started to flirt with Neapolitan innovations by 1730. In that year, Hasse's strongly Neapolitan compositions became a la mode when he was hired as kapellmeister, much to Zelenka's dismay, since he hoped to get that position himself (and if he knew he'd be up against Hasse, he would obviously adopt the most advanced stylistic traits present in Hasse's music). Being relegated to the role of stand-in kapelmeister during Heinichen's decline in the 1720s until his death in 1729, and then kept in that role as stand-in for Hasse from 1730-35, who had been named kapellmeister in 1730, but couldn't take up his position until 1733 and then only part-time between engagements in Italy. This was no doubt a disappointment for Zelenka. On the other hand, he received a substantial 37.5% raise in 1730 and was nominated as the official church music composer, a title he would share with Bach from 1736, so he couldn't have been entirely discontent with his situation. Surely Zelenka could not have been unaware that he had no track record of composing operas, much less operas that were famous throughout Italy, Austria and Germany as were Hasse's.Church music compositions were expected to be written in a conservative style befitting the seriousness of church services, so Zelenka couldn't let his Neapolitan inclinations rip like Hasse did to full effect in his operas. Nonetheless, there is a surprising amount of Napolitanisms in his arias and choruses (like the faux plainchant in the Credos of his masses, which was a favorite Neapolitan school method of lending gravitas to ecclesiastical choruses) between music written in the late baroque contrapuntal style used by Bach, who was a good friend of Zelenka's. So Zelenka made the best out of his situation and artistic ambition, which culminated in the six missae ultimae, which were similar to Bach's B minor mass in scope and written more for Zelenka's own sake than in the hope of performance (Bach's B minor mass suffered a similar fate).
Tony Villamotte Interesting idea re: Durante & Zelenka. The Neapolitan influence is a very strong one, particularly from 1729/1730 onwards. He compiled a large collection of secular operatic arias for the Italian singers that arrived in Dresden in 1730 (who he also taught). About half of the composers listed are Neapolitan, including: Porpora, Leo, Vinci, Caballone, Porsile, Sarro and of course Hasse (note that he was admiring Hasse's groundbreaking style before he even arrived in Dresden). In putting this together he was keeping strongly in touch with the best and newest operatic trends of the day. Then through the 30s he attained a number of key Neapolitan Masses which must have been quite inspiring. This all was possible through Maria Josepha and her Habsburg family connections in Naples. But, of course, he equally kept up his roots in Viennese sacred music which revolved mostly around Italian and Austrian Renaissance polyphonic styles.
Thanks for the feedback and telling me about Zelenka's aria collection. I have just recently been looking over Heinichen's choral works - which are sadly underrepresented relative to his instrumental works in the recording catalog though they're reasonably well-represented in IMSLP in printed copy or MS - and find it interesting how VERY Neapolitan Heinichien sounds as well. I find it quite astounding that Heinichen's ecclesiastical works could sound so very much like Pergolesi's Stabat mater considering that Heinichen is only documented as being in Italy from 1710 to 1717, and then only in Venice and Rome, and, furthermore, that he died some 7 years before Pergolesi's evergreen was composed. If anyone, Heinichen should be famous and Pergolesi less so! No doubt he crossed paths with Handel and Vivaldi during that time, but those two were hardly Neapolitanisti by any stretch of the imagination (Handel gave it his best in the 1740s and onwards, but his heart was never in it, and Vivaldi put together a pastiche opera where he wrote arias in his own style for the good guys and inserted arias by Neapolitan composers for the bad guys - if that isn't sending a message, I don't know what is). Pergolesi didn't really start his meteoric (literally) rise to fame until 1731, by which year Heinichen was dead. And Heinichen composed his ecclesiastical works mainly between 1721 until his death. Zelenka was reaching his peak mature age at the same time and reached his best in the years following Heinichen's death (competing with JS Bach's B Minor Mass and other church music would have prompted any composer with an iota of intelligence to produce his best work, of course).Heinichen wrote quite a few operas (relatively speaking) during his Venetian and Roman days, but those remain in the dark at present. It would be interesting to hear his stylistic development in the 1710s as well as Flavio Crispo of 1720, which preceded (caused?) the firing of the entire Venetian entourage that Heinichen brought with him from Venice to Dresden and which were subsequently all hired by Handel right after the debacle in Dresden, whatever it may have been, if, indeed, it was a debacle.Leonardo Leo and Durante were, of course, at the peak of their careers in the 1710s, but Leo's most famous works weren't written until the 1730s. Alessandro Scarlatti isn't exactly the strongest proponent of the Neapolitan school (at least in my humble opinion; probably because he had to face Handel's cantatas and oratorios in Rome, which certainly weren't Neapolitan stylistically). This brings us back to Durante, especially since he pretty much only wrote works for church purposes. Much of it isn't properly dated and Durante's life and influence still lack a musicological champion. While I'm sure Lotti played some role in the mix, I don't hear much Neapolitan style in his music either. He was, to all intents and purposes, a composer of the Venetian school. Thus Durante still remains the smoking gun when it comes to Zelenka's unique compositional style, as well as that of Heinichen.Well, I'll keep looking for more info on Heinichen, since the terrible, dark secret that his choral works actually sound pretty darn Zelenkian, leading to the heretical thought that Zelenka may have picked up more from Heinichen and his contacts than the other way around, must come to light sooner or later.
It's not heretical by any means. I had forgotten to mention him in my reply, probably because I take it for granted. It's well recognised by Zelenka-musicologists that they were very close colleagues during the 1720s, and that Heinichen had a crucial role in Zelenka's style at the turn of the 20s/30s - and yet, the relationship, musically speaking, remains under-explored. That Heinichen's orchestration techniques, operatic influences and melodism influenced Zelenka, is undeniable. But, I believe it was also a two-way process. Zelenka had lots of expertise in crafting the music for proper Catholic liturgical use, Heinichen, in the early 1720s, didn't. When he first joined the Hofkapelle, he had to go through a steep learning curve so as to provide the right sort of music or the Court Church. Zelenka was likely key to helping him out there. Or perhaps they both improved with each other. There is not yet enough proof to conclude this, however. As to why there are such similarities in style between Heinichen, Durante and later Neapolitans: Perhaps the whole concept of a distinct "Neapolitan School" needs to be reassessed! Also: Heinichen most likely did meet Vivaldi during his time in Venice, though there's no documentation to show it. Their musico-theoretical similarity is striking, and has been argued by Dr. Margaret Williams, a Heinichen scholar (her thesis on Heinichen's Vespers' Psalms is available online, Bristol University. I recommend it!).
Wspaniała muzyka, kojarząca się nieco z utworami G.F. Handla-("Messiah"), aczkolwiek prawdopodobnie z przyczyn systemów ustrojowych bloku wschodniego, a także braku należytej promocji, -zaszufladkowana gdzieś głęboko na dnie kufra chrześcijańskiej kultury Zachodu. Jak jednak widać, powoli Ci niezwykli twórcy stopniowo wychodzą na światło dzienne. Oby jak najwięcej takich wspaniałych odkryć!
Quel grand compositeur! Et quel grand siècle pour les arts! Les compositions de Zelenka renforce mon amour pour le baroque ! Qu’on ne vienne pas me dire après un tel chef-d’œuvre que l’homme descend du singe, aucun être vivant sur terre ne peut s’élever à de tels sommets de grandeur, à une telle transcendance ! Et pour cause...Dieu créa l’homme à son image, et Zelenka comme tant d’autres prouvent par leur art que leur talent vient de leur foi, et de leur identité en Christ. Merci encore pour cette magnifique compilation !
L'homme en effet ne descend pas du singe mais est un primate qui a évolué. Cependant son cerveau a au fil de l'évolution atteint une complexité telle qu'il s'élève à des niveaux auquels aucune autre espèce vivante ne peut prétendre.
Jan Dismas Zelenka is most certainly on a par with Bach, and I might even say better in some respects. Zelenka brings a light, clear and profound beauty to the Masses, Litanies, Requiems and Holy Week music. He should be better recognised world wide!
Agreed! Not to mention the Oratorios, Cantatas, Motets, Marian Hymns, the vibrant secular vocal works ((rare occurrence for Zelenka, like with Bach) about to upload one, in fact!), and the few astounding instrumental pieces. The quality more than makes up for the quantity :)
I totally agree, you said very beautifully
My love for Bach no one can change it, but -shame on me- I just discovered Zelenka and I can't stop listening to his music!!! I have more than 6 hours here, in Lamentationes, Requiem, Miserere, Masses, etc. I have not sleep...no care at all. I am in heaven.
Thank you, TH-cam, and thank you to all of you who took the time to share this videos with all of us!!!
I know the feeling, but don't be ashamed though! I came into Late Baroque music the other way round: I started by finding Zelenka (
Zelenka is the best surprise of the baroque religious music during the great XVIIIth century, with Cassanea de Mondonville too !!!
But of course Zelenka was one of the friends of JSBach, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel tells it us.
@@canaleteatrale6662 And one of Bach's sons - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, was given permission by Jan Dismas Zelenka himself to copy out the "Amen" fugue from his Magnificat in D Major (ZWV 108) - score here: th-cam.com/video/BxDkJ566qn0/w-d-xo.html
Original manuscript score here also: th-cam.com/video/MWKTjoJl34Y/w-d-xo.html
Asi me siento yo también cuando escucho Zelenka,su música nos transporta a otras dimensiones
Zelenka é realmente um grande compositor de alta sensibilidade e grande capacidade técnica. É incrível como é tão pouco conhecido. Talvez por ser tcheco, um país na encruzilhada entre ocidente e oriente europeu, vitima de discriminação.
Il fut un maître de la musique sacrée. Un homme exceptionnel dans la création et la réalisation de ses œuvres !! Toutes choses devient vain quand on l'écoute, la plénitude remplace les tracas au quotidien. Peut-être un pas vers le monde imaginaire que décrit Einstein.
..
JAN DISMAS ZELENKA
{ LOUNOVICE 1679-1745 DRESDE }
LITANIAE XAVERIANAE { ZWV 155 } ENSEMBLE INÉGAL CONDUCTOR ADAM VIKTORA & PRAGUE BAROQUE { COMPOSED 1727 } . Une merveille Soprano ténor basse chœur orchestre grandiose bravo d'un dès grand compositeur de la musique baroque.Merci pour ce concert de ZELENKA qui est Eternel et cette vidéo sublime.
As I keep telling people, Zelenka's music stands out because he was essentially the first home-grown north European composer who integrated elements of the Neapolitan school into his works, and he did so early, when the Neapolitan style had barely made it out of Naples to other parts of Italy. I surmise, there's a good chance that Zelenka met Durante - one of the foremost exponents of the early Neapolitan style - when both were in Vienna from 1717-1719. Zelenka's trip is well-documented, Durante's less so, but they have too many similar touches sprinkled throughout their works for that to be mere accident on Zelenka's part. Obviously, it was Durante who was an influence on Zelenka, less so the other way around. Of course, Zelenka worked in a northern German musical center, Dresden, where tastes remained somewhat conservative, though less so than in most other places throughout Germany. Dresden was a major purchaser of Vivaldi's concerti and other works by Italian composers like Veracini and Lotti but these were Venetians who had not really started to flirt with Neapolitan innovations by 1730. In that year, Hasse's strongly Neapolitan compositions became a la mode when he was hired as kapellmeister, much to Zelenka's dismay, since he hoped to get that position himself (and if he knew he'd be up against Hasse, he would obviously adopt the most advanced stylistic traits present in Hasse's music). Being relegated to the role of stand-in kapelmeister during Heinichen's decline in the 1720s until his death in 1729, and then kept in that role as stand-in for Hasse from 1730-35, who had been named kapellmeister in 1730, but couldn't take up his position until 1733 and then only part-time between engagements in Italy. This was no doubt a disappointment for Zelenka. On the other hand, he received a substantial 37.5% raise in 1730 and was nominated as the official church music composer, a title he would share with Bach from 1736, so he couldn't have been entirely discontent with his situation. Surely Zelenka could not have been unaware that he had no track record of composing operas, much less operas that were famous throughout Italy, Austria and Germany as were Hasse's.Church music compositions were expected to be written in a conservative style befitting the seriousness of church services, so Zelenka couldn't let his Neapolitan inclinations rip like Hasse did to full effect in his operas. Nonetheless, there is a surprising amount of Napolitanisms in his arias and choruses (like the faux plainchant in the Credos of his masses, which was a favorite Neapolitan school method of lending gravitas to ecclesiastical choruses) between music written in the late baroque contrapuntal style used by Bach, who was a good friend of Zelenka's. So Zelenka made the best out of his situation and artistic ambition, which culminated in the six missae ultimae, which were similar to Bach's B minor mass in scope and written more for Zelenka's own sake than in the hope of performance (Bach's B minor mass suffered a similar fate).
Tony Villamotte Interesting idea re: Durante & Zelenka. The Neapolitan influence is a very strong one, particularly from 1729/1730 onwards. He compiled a large collection of secular operatic arias for the Italian singers that arrived in Dresden in 1730 (who he also taught). About half of the composers listed are Neapolitan, including: Porpora, Leo, Vinci, Caballone, Porsile, Sarro and of course Hasse (note that he was admiring Hasse's groundbreaking style before he even arrived in Dresden). In putting this together he was keeping strongly in touch with the best and newest operatic trends of the day. Then through the 30s he attained a number of key Neapolitan Masses which must have been quite inspiring. This all was possible through Maria Josepha and her Habsburg family connections in Naples. But, of course, he equally kept up his roots in Viennese sacred music which revolved mostly around Italian and Austrian Renaissance polyphonic styles.
Tony Villamotte and thanks for commenting so thoughtfully!
Thanks for the feedback and telling me about Zelenka's aria collection. I have just recently been looking over Heinichen's choral works - which are sadly underrepresented relative to his instrumental works in the recording catalog though they're reasonably well-represented in IMSLP in printed copy or MS - and find it interesting how VERY Neapolitan Heinichien sounds as well. I find it quite astounding that Heinichen's ecclesiastical works could sound so very much like Pergolesi's Stabat mater considering that Heinichen is only documented as being in Italy from 1710 to 1717, and then only in Venice and Rome, and, furthermore, that he died some 7 years before Pergolesi's evergreen was composed. If anyone, Heinichen should be famous and Pergolesi less so! No doubt he crossed paths with Handel and Vivaldi during that time, but those two were hardly Neapolitanisti by any stretch of the imagination (Handel gave it his best in the 1740s and onwards, but his heart was never in it, and Vivaldi put together a pastiche opera where he wrote arias in his own style for the good guys and inserted arias by Neapolitan composers for the bad guys - if that isn't sending a message, I don't know what is). Pergolesi didn't really start his meteoric (literally) rise to fame until 1731, by which year Heinichen was dead. And Heinichen composed his ecclesiastical works mainly between 1721 until his death. Zelenka was reaching his peak mature age at the same time and reached his best in the years following Heinichen's death (competing with JS Bach's B Minor Mass and other church music would have prompted any composer with an iota of intelligence to produce his best work, of course).Heinichen wrote quite a few operas (relatively speaking) during his Venetian and Roman days, but those remain in the dark at present. It would be interesting to hear his stylistic development in the 1710s as well as Flavio Crispo of 1720, which preceded (caused?) the firing of the entire Venetian entourage that Heinichen brought with him from Venice to Dresden and which were subsequently all hired by Handel right after the debacle in Dresden, whatever it may have been, if, indeed, it was a debacle.Leonardo Leo and Durante were, of course, at the peak of their careers in the 1710s, but Leo's most famous works weren't written until the 1730s. Alessandro Scarlatti isn't exactly the strongest proponent of the Neapolitan school (at least in my humble opinion; probably because he had to face Handel's cantatas and oratorios in Rome, which certainly weren't Neapolitan stylistically). This brings us back to Durante, especially since he pretty much only wrote works for church purposes. Much of it isn't properly dated and Durante's life and influence still lack a musicological champion. While I'm sure Lotti played some role in the mix, I don't hear much Neapolitan style in his music either. He was, to all intents and purposes, a composer of the Venetian school. Thus Durante still remains the smoking gun when it comes to Zelenka's unique compositional style, as well as that of Heinichen.Well, I'll keep looking for more info on Heinichen, since the terrible, dark secret that his choral works actually sound pretty darn Zelenkian, leading to the heretical thought that Zelenka may have picked up more from Heinichen and his contacts than the other way around, must come to light sooner or later.
It's not heretical by any means. I had forgotten to mention him in my reply, probably because I take it for granted. It's well recognised by Zelenka-musicologists that they were very close colleagues during the 1720s, and that Heinichen had a crucial role in Zelenka's style at the turn of the 20s/30s - and yet, the relationship, musically speaking, remains under-explored. That Heinichen's orchestration techniques, operatic influences and melodism influenced Zelenka, is undeniable.
But, I believe it was also a two-way process. Zelenka had lots of expertise in crafting the music for proper Catholic liturgical use, Heinichen, in the early 1720s, didn't. When he first joined the Hofkapelle, he had to go through a steep learning curve so as to provide the right sort of music or the Court Church. Zelenka was likely key to helping him out there. Or perhaps they both improved with each other. There is not yet enough proof to conclude this, however.
As to why there are such similarities in style between Heinichen, Durante and later Neapolitans: Perhaps the whole concept of a distinct "Neapolitan School" needs to be reassessed!
Also: Heinichen most likely did meet Vivaldi during his time in Venice, though there's no documentation to show it. Their musico-theoretical similarity is striking, and has been argued by Dr. Margaret Williams, a Heinichen scholar (her thesis on Heinichen's Vespers' Psalms is available online, Bristol University. I recommend it!).
Thanks Tony Villamotte and Xanaseb... Zelenka's link to Durante and the Neapolitan school is compelling. Nice detective work.
Nádherné, mělo by se to opakovat. Soubor je úžesný, Část jej zpívala na koncertě u nás v kapli Sv.Jana Nepomuckého -Chrást část Děčína Jsou úžasní!!!!
Nice music
Zelenka é expressão maior do brilhantismo barroco. Música sublime.
Музыка гениальная!!! Исполнители прекрасные!!!
Eto pravda!!
Wspaniała muzyka, kojarząca się nieco z utworami G.F. Handla-("Messiah"), aczkolwiek prawdopodobnie z przyczyn systemów ustrojowych bloku wschodniego, a także braku należytej promocji, -zaszufladkowana gdzieś głęboko na dnie kufra chrześcijańskiej kultury Zachodu. Jak jednak widać, powoli Ci niezwykli twórcy stopniowo wychodzą na światło dzienne. Oby jak najwięcej takich wspaniałych odkryć!
Quel grand compositeur! Et quel grand siècle pour les arts! Les compositions de Zelenka renforce mon amour pour le baroque ! Qu’on ne vienne pas me dire après un tel chef-d’œuvre que l’homme descend du singe, aucun être vivant sur terre ne peut s’élever à de tels sommets de grandeur, à une telle transcendance ! Et pour cause...Dieu créa l’homme à son image, et Zelenka comme tant d’autres prouvent par leur art que leur talent vient de leur foi, et de leur identité en Christ. Merci encore pour cette magnifique compilation !
L'homme en effet ne descend pas du singe mais est un primate qui a évolué.
Cependant son cerveau a au fil de l'évolution atteint une complexité telle qu'il s'élève à des niveaux auquels aucune autre espèce vivante ne peut prétendre.
Beautiful. Music that could only have been inspired by faith.
Jeg har meget svært ved at høre forskel på Bach og så Zelenka. De er begge fantastiske komponister. Dejlig musik....
Beautiful and thrilling.
კიდე კარგი,ეს გადამეყარა.
Agréable à ecouter
03:54, 09:00
Q
A Papa Francesco.