0:07

Hello,

0:07

and welcome to sticky notes. The classical music part

0:10

cast. My name is Joshua Weilerstein. I'm a conductor,

0:12

and I'm the music director of the Phoenix Orchestra

0:14

of Boston and the Chief conductor designate

0:16

of the All Board Symphony. This

0:18

podcast is for anyone who loves classical

0:20

music, works in the field, or is just getting

0:22

ready to dive in to this amazing world

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of incredible music. Before we get started,

0:26

I wanna thank my new Patreon sponsors, Emma,

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Larry, Nick, and all of my

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other Patreon sponsors for making season

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and it is greatly appreciated.

0:48

So I'm back in

0:51

London after having a really nice time up in

0:53

Cambridge over weekend conducting

0:55

the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra. We

0:57

did a really difficult program with

0:59

Stuminski's Patricia and Percoffee of third

1:01

piano concerto along with piece by the

1:03

great Ukrainian composer Valentin Sylvesterov.

1:06

I've talked about Sylvesterov lot on my episode

1:08

about Ukrainian Composers, and I really

1:10

find him to be an underrated living

1:12

composer. He's currently living in Berlin in

1:15

exile. He's eighty five years old. He's

1:17

really his story is amazing and

1:19

his music is really incredibly beautiful. also,

1:21

do check that out. Really happy

1:23

to be back with new episodes. Finally, well

1:25

enough to write and record this one

1:28

on Yana Chex, Cinfonieta. I wanna

1:30

thank Gavin for sponsoring today's

1:32

episode on Patreon. If you would like me

1:34

to analyze a piece that I haven't covered yet on

1:36

the show, please do check out my Patreon

1:38

page where you can make that happen. in

1:41

the meantime, on to Yana Chexinfonieta.

2:04

Along with Anthony Dvorchak

2:06

and Cedric Smetna, Leo Ciena

2:08

Czech is known as one of the three great

2:11

Czech composers. He was born

2:13

in Moravia, part of the Austrian empire

2:15

at the time. and became passionately

2:17

interested in studying the folk music of

2:19

his Moravian culture. In fact,

2:21

everything that Yana checked did was passionate from

2:23

his music to his personal life. which we'll get

2:25

into later. Yanacs struggled

2:28

for notoriety throughout his life until

2:30

he had his first major breakthrough in

2:32

nineteen sixteen with his opera uniform.

2:35

Yanna Chek was sixty two years old when he finally

2:37

got his big break. And for the rest of his life,

2:39

he was fed it as a true check icon.

2:42

especially as nationalistic forces

2:44

chafed against the Austro Hungarian Empire

2:46

which controlled the region. After

2:49

World War one when the Empire collapsed and

2:51

Moravia became incorporated into the new

2:53

country of Czechoslovakia. Those

2:55

nationalistic sentiments only increased.

2:57

and Yanacic was the perfect person

2:59

to express those feelings through his music,

3:02

seen as his interest in the folk music of his

3:04

homeland had been a lifelong passion for him.

3:06

Enter theinfonieta. Written

3:08

in nineteen twenty six commissioned by

3:10

a gymnastics festival, something we'll also

3:12

talk about a bit later. Asymphonyera is

3:15

usually a smaller scale piece than a symphony,

3:17

shorter with a lighter orchestration and a lighter

3:19

touch. Well, Yanacic was

3:22

always a rebel. and hisinfonieta is

3:24

a symphony and all but name, featuring

3:26

an absolutely massive brass

3:28

section that lustily performs the nationalistic

3:31

fan fairs Yanna Chek adds to the music.

3:33

And the Sinfonietta is an expression of patriotic

3:36

love for Yanna Chek's homeland. But

3:38

it is also a piece that shows off so

3:40

many of the things that make Yanaczek such

3:42

a unique and underrated composer

3:44

today. His love of short

3:46

fragmented melodies, his shocks and

3:48

surprises, his innovative use of

3:50

orchestration and much more. We'll

3:52

explore all of this today on this Patreon

3:55

episode coming right up on sticky

3:57

notes.

4:14

The Sokol movement was a gymnastics

4:16

organization first founded in eighteen

4:18

sixty two in Prague. The

4:20

movement was based on the principle of, quote, a

4:22

strong mind and a sound body.

4:25

When the organization was first founded, the

4:27

country is now known as the Czech Republic and

4:29

Slovakia. were under the rule of the

4:31

Austro Hungarian Empire. And the

4:33

so called movement took on an increasingly nationalistic

4:35

strain as it developed across the

4:37

Slavic lands of the empire. This

4:40

was the subject of huge debate within the organization

4:42

as the so called movement officially described

4:44

itself as above politics. But

4:46

younger leaders in the organization increasingly

4:49

advocated the movement to get itself

4:51

more directly involved in politics,

4:53

and specifically a nationalist politics

4:56

that agitated for more independence and

4:58

freedoms from the Austro Hungarian Empire.

5:01

One of the major events that the Sokol movement

5:03

created was called a slut, meaning a

5:05

flocking of birds. These

5:07

events were very much like the Olympic

5:09

Games, with huge events with

5:11

mass participation from across society,

5:14

all joining together to see the gymnastics

5:16

competitions, the speeches, and even

5:18

theatrical performances. As the

5:20

movement became more explicitly nationalistic,

5:22

the Habsburgs became increasingly concerned by

5:24

it. And during World War one, the

5:26

movement was disbanded by force.

5:29

But with the fall of the Habsburgs,

5:31

The movement flourished, boasting of nearly

5:33

seven hundred thousand members before

5:36

they were brutally suppressed by the Nazis during

5:38

the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia.

5:41

In nineteen twenty six, possibly one of

5:43

the peak years for the locals, Yada

5:45

Chek now a venerated figure in the Chek

5:47

cultural world was asked to write

5:49

fan fares for the latest slit.

5:51

Yanancik was deeply inspired after attending

5:53

the event, both by the music that he heard

5:55

there, as well as the patriotic

5:57

and nationalistic feelings that were expressed

5:59

in the speeches and theater pieces.

6:02

Yanaczek decided to develop some of this

6:04

music into a which he had first called

6:06

militaryinfonieta. He

6:08

dedicated the peace to the Czechoslovak army

6:10

and said that it was meant to express, quote,

6:13

contemporary free man his

6:15

spiritual beauty and joy, his

6:17

strength, courage, and determination to

6:19

fight for victory.

6:48

I

6:48

find this very interesting because it echoes

6:51

language used by certain Soviet

6:53

composers like Prokofia and Chastokovic. Prokofia

6:56

set his fifth symphony was, quote,

6:58

a hymn to a free and happy man,

7:00

to his mighty powers, his

7:02

pure and noble spirit.

7:04

Shustakovic often used

7:06

language like this to describe his more propagandistic

7:08

works for the Soviet regime. Now,

7:11

in Shustakovic's and to a somewhat lesser

7:13

extent Percolovia's case, These

7:15

words have often been seen as sarcastic, filled

7:17

with irony, or simply to have

7:19

been forced out of these two composers.

7:21

But in Yada Chek's case, the sentiment seems

7:23

to be wholly genuine. Just

7:26

another lesson in the power slash complexity

7:28

of words and the way they are used.

7:30

Ynonetic later dropped the military

7:33

part of the title, but still left the dedication

7:35

of the Czechoslovak army. Let's

7:37

start to talk about the peace now. Yanna

7:39

Chek, as I said, was inspired by fan

7:41

fairs that he heard at the Sokol Festival,

7:43

and he embraces whole heartedly

7:45

this inspiration. with a brass section that

7:47

makes the piece fairly hard to perform

7:50

since it is so unbelievably gigantic.

7:53

A normal twentieth century brass section

7:55

features four horns two or three trumpets,

7:57

three trombones, and a tuba. The

7:59

score for Yana Fix, Cinfonieta, calls

8:02

for four French horns, nine

8:05

c trumpets, three f

8:07

trumpets, two base trumpets,

8:09

four trumpets, two uphoniums, and

8:12

a tubea. That's right. That's

8:14

fourteen trumpets in a single

8:16

piece. They are only used in the

8:18

first and last movements, but they make an impact

8:20

right away.

8:38

The first

8:41

movement is titled Fan Fair, and it displays

8:43

some of the fundamental characteristics of

8:45

Yanitex music. Many people

8:47

aren't that familiar with Yanitex since his music

8:49

isn't performed as much as it should be,

8:51

sometimes due to practical considerations like

8:53

Jana Czech writing a piece for fourteen

8:55

trumpets, but his music is known

8:57

for a few things. One, a beta

8:59

ovarian like obsession with small

9:01

motives. And two,

9:03

rapid shifts in mood and character that

9:05

the writer Tom service likens

9:07

to cinematic jump cuts. The

9:09

first moment shows that obsession with small motives.

9:11

As in the two and a half minutes of this

9:13

first moment takes to perform, YanaCheck

9:15

obsessively repeats a single

9:17

motive. First heard in the percussion as

9:19

an answer to the main theme.

9:21

This

9:34

motive.

9:37

will be taken up by the rest of the

9:40

nine trumpets, creating a

9:42

brilliant symmetry and ceremonial

9:44

atmosphere to the music.

9:59

But don't forget about

9:59

that main theme played by the

10:02

euphonium. And if you don't know that instrument, it's

10:04

basically a smaller and slightly

10:06

more nimble cousin of the Toomba.

10:08

That short theme

10:09

will

10:13

become the basis for many of the themes in

10:16

the other four movements in the Sinfonieta.

10:18

The cascading fan fairs are all short

10:20

phrases, and Yanaczek repeats each

10:22

one. Repetition never

10:24

bothers Yanaczek. Instead, he puts you

10:26

into almost a trance

10:29

as the fanfare cascades down

10:31

again and again. but

10:33

with subtle shifts each time to keep

10:35

us engaged. For example, we

10:37

have one fanfare with a five bar

10:39

phrase repeated. then Janichik

10:41

switches the harmony and extends the phrase to

10:43

nine bars. When I was

10:45

listening to the piece while writing this show, I

10:47

found myself constantly leaning

10:49

forward. waiting for the resolutions,

10:51

and then smiling as Yanacic would delay

10:53

them. That's great

10:54

composition right there. Transenducing and

10:57

engaging at the same time.

11:44

Now,

11:44

Yanacic adds a beat to every measure,

11:46

and the fan fare gets more ruckus and

11:48

virtualistic. Apparently, Yanacic

11:50

preferred this piece to be played by a military

11:52

band, which certainly has a brighter and sometimes,

11:54

rougher sound than a symphonic brass

11:56

section. The Nanotech would tell orchestras

11:58

that they needed to play as roughly,

12:00

brashly, and brightly as possible.

12:02

This section makes that advice practically impossible

12:05

to ignore.

12:25

Now we have three things happening

12:27

at once. The euphoniums continue in

12:29

the main theme, while the trumpets play a

12:31

glowing chorale over the top. underneath

12:33

the percussive rhythm stays in the three that

12:36

Yannechk established before, creating

12:38

a rhythmic instability underneath

12:40

the soaring theme.

13:01

Yanna Czech will now obsessively repeat

13:04

the same motives. Again

13:06

and again, all on the key of d

13:08

flat major for twenty

13:10

three consecutive measures. How

13:12

does he get away with this? Well, with all

13:14

the rhythmic instability he just created before,

13:17

Yanna Chek now allows us to bathe

13:19

in the warm minority of the d

13:21

flat major. And he almost

13:23

literally hammers home the rhythmic

13:25

idea of

13:27

And we will never forget it, which is good

13:29

since it will come back again and again for the next

13:31

twenty minutes or so of music. This

13:34

is a movement and a piece that you just

13:36

have to hear live recordings can't do

13:38

a justice. Orchestra just play

13:40

this piece usually once every five or

13:42

ten years because of its size, So if you get a

13:44

chance to hear it, run. Don't

13:46

walk.

14:30

This is a highly patriotic piece,

14:32

but it's not all brass fan fairs.

14:34

And in fact, those extra trumpets

14:36

and euphoniums are only heard in

14:38

the first and fifth and final movement.

14:41

Naturally, then the character changes for the

14:43

inner movements, which are tributes to

14:45

different parts of Bernal. Yandex

14:47

adopted hometown in the second largest

14:49

city in the modern Daycheck Republic.

14:51

The second movement is dedicated to Bernos' Spielberg

14:54

Castle, which was built in the mid thirteenth

14:56

century. It was later turned

14:58

into a notorious prison in the

15:00

Austrian empire but the prison

15:02

was dissolved in eighteen fifty five when it was

15:04

turned into a military barracks. The

15:07

castle was then used by the Nazis as a

15:09

way station for prisoners between their

15:11

capture and concentration camps. Nowadays,

15:13

the castle functions as the Berno City

15:15

Museum. But in Yanaczek's time, it was

15:17

a barracks in between its more

15:19

notorious uses as a prison.

15:21

often said to be the harshest in the Austrian

15:23

empire. The second movement of the

15:25

Sinfonietta is the second longest of the

15:27

peace, but it also doesn't seem to have

15:30

a lot to do with the castle

15:32

itself. Instead, the movement is

15:34

another tightly constructed character

15:36

piece with the same sense of

15:38

repetition as the first movement. Yanatech writes

15:40

those short phrases that he obsessively

15:42

repeats. And if you listen very

15:44

closely, you can hear that this is a sped up

15:46

variation on the main new phoneme

15:48

theme from the first movement.

16:16

The strings make their first appearance in the

16:18

piece, not in a glowing melody like you might

16:20

expect, but in a rough and tumbled

16:22

version of the main theme in the movement.

16:24

including all of those repetitions. You're

16:27

also hearing this movement, Yanichik's love

16:29

of wide spaces and orchestration,

16:31

Before the strings come in, you hear the upper winds

16:34

screeching away while the bassoons and trombones

16:36

ramp around in a lower register.

16:38

Creating that wide space that the

16:40

strings gleefully take on.

16:55

Now we

17:02

get a real Yanacic specialty.

17:05

as a sudden shift in character in slowing of the tempo

17:07

reveals one of his most gorgeous

17:10

melodies. But it has an odd

17:12

ostinato or repeated accompaniment

17:14

that always disrupts that

17:17

beauty as if we have two sides of a

17:19

personality. That theme is then

17:21

interrupted by a completely unrelated

17:23

harmony before settling back in again. These

17:25

are those cinematic jump cuts that

17:27

Nanotech embraced so wholeheartedly

17:29

in his music.

17:56

Now,

17:59

Yanichai compresses a musical time and speeds

18:02

up for a dizzying set of

18:04

jump cuts. First, we arrive more

18:07

agitated tempo.

18:37

Then the string's creep in much slower with

18:39

a version of this theme. but

18:41

much more under the surface and mysterious.

18:43

And

18:51

as if they are completely ignored, the

18:53

cellos kick the temple up with an incredibly

18:55

agitated idea. which

18:57

propels the violins higher and

18:59

higher. The temple will get even faster

19:01

as Yanachet creates a remarkable

19:03

excitement out of such a small set

19:05

of ideas. We've really only

19:07

heard the opening theme in this

19:09

alternately Peppy agitated and mysterious

19:11

eighth known idea. So it's a real

19:13

show of his skill that he creates this

19:15

momentum out of these microscopic

19:18

musical elements.

19:55

Now

20:01

Yanna check juxtaposes the eight

20:04

node idea. with the agitated cello line.

20:21

but he

20:21

reverses their

20:22

roles with the cello and basin bassoon

20:24

playing the eighth note idea and the

20:26

violins playing the agitated line. Yanaczek

20:29

creates some stability here and that the tempo doesn't

20:32

change. But the battle between these two ideas

20:34

becomes ever more rocus and

20:36

hyperactive. And

20:57

what

21:00

results is the last thing you can possibly

21:02

expect, but This is

21:04

YadaCheck we're talking about, so perhaps

21:06

that's exactly what you should expect the

21:08

unexpected. Instead of a

21:10

breakthrough of violence in this

21:12

pitched battle, Instead, Yanacic

21:14

breaks through with a majestic and

21:16

glowing version of his opening theme from

21:18

the first movement, played by the

21:20

much more normal complement of

21:22

just three rabbits.

21:49

Yatec has an amazing way of

21:52

stretching time. As an

21:54

accompaniment to the brass chorale, Yatec has a

21:56

single group of violins or

21:58

violas, playing the agitated line from

22:00

earlier on. But for the rest of the orchestra,

22:02

they stay put on one single

22:04

note, creating both a feeling

22:06

of momentum and of stasis.

22:08

This piece is quite a cinematic

22:11

quality considering it was written just as

22:13

film was beginning to come into

22:15

its

22:15

own.

22:34

but the agitated theme isn't done with us and

22:36

it breaks in again, only to be

22:39

flattened again by another appearance of the theme,

22:41

louder and more passionate

22:43

this time.

23:08

but it also lasts a much shorter period as

23:10

if it puts to rest once and for all

23:12

the agitated theme. And

23:15

Yanaczek will return to his opening music

23:17

with that strange Astinato,

23:19

accompanying a kind of combination of

23:21

the main theme and the eighth node idea.

23:23

Perhaps the agitated theme and the

23:26

chorale combined to create this new,

23:28

more unified idea.

23:59

And as if to prove that point, the

24:01

Austin Auto now accompanies the first ever

24:03

quiet version of the Choral theme

24:05

played again but extremely softly and in the

24:08

distance. Everything is starting to come

24:10

together until Janna Chick once again pulls the

24:12

rug out from under us, return

24:14

to the beginning of the movement and to the folksy

24:16

and joyful bounce of the eighth note

24:18

idea, which takes us to the ruckus

24:20

end of the movement.

24:33

oh

25:16

The third

25:17

woman of the symphonietta is a depiction of the

25:20

queen's monastery in Bernal. The

25:22

monastery where Yanaczek learned to play

25:24

the organ as a young boy. and

25:26

which he described in his youth as being a

25:28

place of holy quiet. The

25:29

opening of the third movie gives us

25:32

certainly a sense of calm after the jump cuts of the

25:34

second movement. but there's something

25:36

unsettled about it, an inner pain that is

25:38

often present in Yanacik's slower

25:40

music.

26:19

This is one of the things that I love about

26:21

Nanotech's music. It's a combination of the familiar

26:23

and the strange. The familiar

26:25

is the plaintive sadness

26:27

of the melody, which could have written many romantic era

26:30

composers. But the strange

26:32

is the way that Yanaczek uses a

26:34

tubea and a base clarinet to

26:36

create a drone. I

26:38

don't know of any composer who uses that combination of

26:40

instruments to create a drone, and it

26:42

creates a new and unsettling

26:45

sound. The mellowness of the two

26:47

instruments creates a thin layer of

26:49

deep and unmistakable power

26:51

in this passage.

27:17

The one element

27:20

I haven't mentioned

27:23

is the oscillating accompaniment in the

27:25

harpen strings. This

27:27

accompaniment, combined with the drone,

27:29

suggests to me a plaintive and

27:31

lamenting prayer in the melody. Once

27:33

again, JanaCheck finds a way to create stasis

27:35

and movement at the same time.

28:04

Yanotec pulls off another cool of orchestration with

28:07

this next passage. where the flutes, all

28:09

four of them, play quite high up, while

28:11

the base clarinet and cellos play the same line

28:13

but much, much lower.

28:15

The cathedral that Jnanatek has portrayed

28:17

in this movement is one of the great examples

28:19

of Gothic architecture in the

28:22

Slavic region. This kind of orchestration

28:24

creates the sense of the vast space

28:26

inside of the cathedral. And even though the

28:28

music is passionate, it's

28:30

quietly the kind of

28:32

holy quiet that Yanaczek described.

29:03

The middle section of the movement is

29:05

a shock. Suddenly, all religious feeling

29:07

is extinguished as the trombones enter with

29:09

what sounds suspiciously like

29:12

a fanfare with the same general rhythmic

29:14

idea as the opening theme of the whole

29:16

piece. Often the brass stand on

29:18

their own in this piece as a separate

29:20

entity from the winds and strings, often

29:22

presenting chorales or fan fairs in the

29:24

style of the so called fan fairs that

29:26

Yannevik was so fond of.

29:40

But there

29:45

are a couple exceptions to this rule, and one of

29:47

them is coming right up in another new

29:49

where for once the brass are

29:51

in dialogue with the rest of the orchestra,

29:54

the trombone takes up a wild solo

29:56

responded to much more soberly by the

29:58

rest of the orchestra. It seems as

30:00

if the Trumpoon is trying to whip up a storm

30:02

all by

30:03

itself.

30:27

And it

30:30

succeeds. completely removing us

30:32

from the quiet passion of the first section of

30:34

the movement. Using a process called

30:36

rhythmic diminution where the note values

30:38

get smaller and smaller and a progressive of

30:40

pattern, Yandex speeds up the temple, and that

30:43

original trombone theme gets taken up

30:45

by all different instruments in

30:47

the orchestra. becoming ever more

30:49

anxious and demonic.

31:33

And

31:38

now the race is on.

31:40

Once again, I can't get away from the feeling that this music is

31:43

incredibly cinematic. I can see in this

31:45

next passage, March to be played as fast

31:47

as possible, some sort of

31:49

army on horseback riding over the countryside.

32:06

but it's

32:07

all for nothing. Nanotech

32:08

suddenly slows down and begins

32:10

to, just like in the second movement, unify

32:13

these two disparate ideas.

32:15

opening theme returns and then the horse riding

32:17

fanfare answers, but

32:19

softly and slowly, as if it had

32:21

been tamed by the sadness of the

32:23

opening theme.

32:41

And the

32:45

movement comes to an end.

33:08

Now, there's

33:12

a wonderful

33:15

Chinese book called Journey to The West.

33:17

It's one of the great classics of Chinese novels,

33:20

and it is known in the English speaking world for

33:22

it's a bridged translation and different

33:24

title, Monkey. I read this translation when I

33:26

was in high school and one of my favorite

33:28

tropes of the stories was that at the end

33:30

of each chapter there was a bit of

33:32

a cliffhanger and the author would say something to

33:34

the effect of, if you wanna know what

33:36

happened to x character, you need to read

33:38

the next chapter. This is how

33:40

I feel when I listen to Yahnichik's music.

33:42

We just had gotten this new character of

33:44

the horseback riding brass chorale, but

33:46

just as quickly the movement has come to an end,

33:49

what happened? Liana Chek

33:51

always makes you wanna turn the page to find

33:53

out what happens next. The fourth

33:55

movement is entitled that the street leading

33:57

to the castle. and it is one of the shorter movements of

33:59

the Sinfonía. It is a return to the brassie music of

34:02

the first movement and features a

34:04

focusy and celebratory trumpet

34:06

fanfare. which is slowly overtaken or

34:08

attempted to be overtaken by a

34:10

more expressive string line. You could

34:12

also once again see these two ideas as

34:16

separate entities against the

34:18

scene at the

34:21

same time.

34:46

There's something undeniably

34:50

joyous about this moment. It reminds

34:52

me of Bartok's full dancers and its

34:54

jaunty rhythms, but the

34:56

strig melody undermines that a

34:58

little bit as if it won't let the folk

35:00

dance quite be

35:02

completely free.

35:22

Now we get some real Yanacic surprises.

35:25

The trumpet fanfare is left in the

35:27

distance with all three

35:30

Trumpets playing as softly as possible with Meets on,

35:32

as if the fan fairies marching away.

35:34

And then we get some more jump cut

35:38

A prayer is interrupted by a rush of sound,

35:40

which is interrupted by another prayer, which is

35:42

interrupted by yet another rush of sound. This

35:44

ushers back in the fanfare, but it never

35:46

quite gets going. it keeps changing tempo and instrumentation, as if it

35:48

isn't quite sure how to handle itself now

35:50

that the trumpets have gone. The

35:52

trumpets marched in, left us

35:54

this theme, and now we have to

35:56

figure out what to do with it. Listen to

35:58

how many different tempos Yanapek

35:59

uses in this

36:02

following passage.

36:39

The number is eight

36:42

eight different tempos in less than a minute of

36:44

music. That's Yananjek for

36:46

you. Almost no one

36:48

who wrote in this purportedly romantic style did things like

36:50

this. And it creates a

36:52

dizzying level of excitement for the audience

36:54

and a pretty dizzying

36:56

level of terror for the conductor and

36:58

orchestra at the

37:00

same time.

38:01

The final movement begins with

38:03

a slow introduction, the only one in the

38:05

peace, and it is full of the melancholy

38:07

that has sometimes been present

38:09

in this peace. But

38:11

this time, it is left without a royaling

38:14

accompaniment. Instead, that anxiety

38:16

answers the theme rather than accompanies it.

38:19

And the two ideas, the melancholy theme and

38:21

the slightly anxious answer work

38:24

together now for the

38:26

first time.

38:56

We definitely get a sense

38:58

of something coming to a close here. The theme has

39:01

a valedictory quality to it as if our tour of Berno is coming

39:03

to an end, and we can sit back in

39:05

both remember, both a struggle for freedom and

39:07

a gratitude for that freedom

39:09

in equal measure. The flutes now play a

39:12

nostalgic but quietly joyful theme

39:14

answered again by that

39:16

ostinato rhythm. ostenados, repetitions,

39:18

jump cuts, unpredictability. These

39:21

seem to be incompatible ideas,

39:23

but Jnanatek makes them

39:25

work.

39:51

Janetik now

39:55

starts bringing

39:58

elements together from earlier in the peace. The

40:01

clarinets play a plaintive melody which reminds me of the

40:03

third movement. While the brass start to appear

40:05

where the trombone's playing as

40:07

soft but insistently present corral

40:10

and that cellos play yet another ostinato.

40:12

The layers are growing

40:15

little by little.

40:39

As

40:42

the

40:46

excitement is building, I just want to take

40:48

a detour to share with you a

40:50

little bit about Yanichik's personality because I think it really helps in understanding

40:52

some of the strangeness of his music.

40:56

Yanna Czech was a passionate man, and one of the great examples

40:58

of this was his correspondence with Camilla

41:00

Stislava, a woman whom Yanna

41:02

Czech met in nineteen seventeen.

41:05

She was married and thirty eight years younger than

41:07

him, but Yanichik fell obsessively

41:10

in love with her, writing her

41:12

over seven hundred letters over the next

41:14

eleven years until his death,

41:16

including a letter nearly every day for the

41:18

final eighteen months of

41:20

his life. Suslava never showed a huge amount of interest in these

41:22

letters from Janna Czech, but she became

41:24

his inspiration all the same for three of his

41:26

late operas.

41:28

including the now legendary cunning little vixen. Just

41:30

one example of these letters gives you an

41:32

idea of how Yanaczek felt and how he

41:36

wrote quote. You stand

41:38

behind every note. You living,

41:40

forceful, loving, the fragrance

41:42

of your body, the glow of your kisses,

41:44

know really of mine. Those notes

41:47

of mine kiss all of you. They call for you

41:49

passionately. To me, this can unlock so

41:51

much of Yanichik's music.

41:54

the quick shifts in character, the passion of the themes.

41:56

This is the music of a man who was not

41:58

really in control of his obsessions.

42:00

Moving from one idea to

42:02

the next, And as we

42:04

come towards the hypothesis of the Sinfonietta, keep that in mind.

42:40

The plaintiffs slash caral slash us

42:42

denato theme is no

42:44

longer quiet. It is in full blown agony now. We still feel

42:46

like we're approaching something, but we're never quite

42:48

sure what.

43:18

But suddenly,

43:20

we hear

43:20

something familiar to us, but only vaguely in

43:24

the

43:24

brass. Do

43:29

you remember

43:31

it?

43:32

It's the

43:34

fanfare from

43:36

the beginning. but

43:38

now even more fragmented with heavy dissonances. Is

43:40

the fan fare the celebratory fan fare

43:42

from the circle

43:43

trying to reemerge?

44:01

Yes, it is. And

44:03

it is

44:04

a huge relief after

44:07

the anxiety and desperation of

44:09

the previous passage. we're now back onto familiar territory as

44:11

the nine trumpets and the two uphoniums

44:14

returned from the opening of the

44:16

peace. But

44:17

It actually doesn't seem that surprising because as I've

44:19

been pointing out,

44:20

Yanaczek keeps referencing that

44:22

opening theme throughout the piece. In

44:25

a beethovenian way, all the motives of

44:28

this

44:29

piece are connected.

44:58

But

44:59

now, unlike in the first movement, the rest of

45:01

the orchestra joyfully participates in the

45:03

fan fairs, with trills, market compliments

45:05

and a wild ecstasy.

45:07

This fanfare has been turned up

45:10

to

45:10

eleven. In

45:28

the final pairation of

45:31

the fanfare, Yanichik seems to put every layer of

45:33

the piece that he has introduced so

45:35

far. cuts, huge distances between the high

45:38

trumpets and the low bass accompaniment,

45:40

passionate melodies, power, and excitement,

45:42

and more. creating a

45:44

visceral thrill that again you've

45:45

just got

45:47

to hear live.

46:17

Diatek

46:18

says his last grand surprise for the very

46:20

very end, with an unbelievably

46:22

overwhelmingly beautiful Adagio that

46:24

channels the grand power of

46:28

Brookner along with the emotional intensity of the best of

46:30

Yanacic.

47:43

I've

47:45

heard

47:48

Yannevik's

47:48

music described by

47:49

some as an acquired

47:52

taste. And I think there's some truth to that. You might have end

47:54

of this piece today and said to yourself

47:56

in a slightly confused

47:58

but hopefully satisfied way. That

48:01

is not an uncommon reaction to

48:04

Yanaczek's music, but I really

48:06

encourage you to stick with it.

48:08

Yanaczek is completely different from

48:10

any other composer in the way that he

48:12

constructs music. But in the end,

48:14

the emotional impact of his music

48:16

is very similar to that of other late

48:18

romantic composers. but I think with some added

48:20

intensity. And that's what I love about

48:21

Yanajek's music. It's sincerity, it's

48:24

earnest desire to grab

48:26

you and trading you

48:28

every idea that pops into his

48:30

mind, no matter how jarring or seemingly

48:32

unrelated to the last idea or to the

48:34

next one. Ynerchuk's music

48:36

is kaleidoscopic, brilliant, often

48:38

overwhelming, and an experience that one has

48:40

to, and I'll say this for the third time, check

48:44

out live. A recording just can't do justice to the emotional

48:46

intensity of hearing one of Yanichik's

48:48

great symphonic works. His

48:50

dramatic chamber

48:52

music, or one of his truly

48:54

spectacular operas, like for example, Unufa,

48:56

the opera that made Yanacic famous.

49:00

Every time you listen to his music and the more you are willing

49:02

to be taken away by the flights of passion from this underrated genius,

49:04

the more his music will overwhelm

49:06

you. And YadaCheck, I hope, will

49:10

quickly become one of

49:12

your indispensable

49:16

favorites. Thanks

49:18

again to Gavin

49:21

for sponsoring today's

49:24

episode, and thanks so much for listening to

49:27

stickiness today. We'll have some more exciting stuff for you next week,

49:29

so don't miss our next episode. If you like what

49:31

you heard today, please feel free to rate and review

49:33

the show on iTunes. It really helps the

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show gain more visibility. and please send

49:37

any questions to sticky notes podcast at dot com or my Facebook page at

49:39

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49:41

as I can.

49:44

And if you like support the podcast monetarily,

49:46

just head over to patreon dot com slash sticky notes podcast. Thanks,

49:48

and I'll talk to you again after

49:52

a while.