Janácek / Tyrrell Intimate Letters

Leos Janácek to Kamila Stösslová
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-6368-6
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 432 Seiten

Reihe: Princeton Legacy Library

These are the letters of a great love story. In 1917, the Czech composer Leos Janáçek met Kamila Stösslová while on holiday at Luhaçovice, a spa resort in Moravia. He was sixty-three and locked in a loveless marriage; she was twenty-six, the wife of an antique dealer frequently away from home. After the holiday, Janáçek began writing to Stösslová. Undeterred by her lack of interest in his work and her spasmodic replies, he continued to send her letters until his death eleven years later. An extraordinarily self-revealing portrait emerges of an isolated artist at the height of his creative powers and the beginning of his international fame. It is also a portrait of a lonely man who, as the years went by, came to fantasize about Stösslová as his true "wife"--the inspiration for many of the works of his old age.

Most of these letters were suppressed until changing conditions in Czechoslovakia allowed their full publication in 1990. John Tyrrell has edited and translated a comprehensive selection, concentrating on the almost daily letters of the final eighteen months. Supported by a diary of meetings between Janáçek and Stösslová, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters, and a selection of mostly unknown photographs, this remarkable book breathes life into the story one of the greatest of operatic composers and provides vital clues to the nature of his creative genius.

Originally published in 1994.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Janácek, Leos

Tyrrell, John

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Plates

Preface and Acknowledgements

Map of Bohemia and Moravia in 1918

Map of Janacek's Railway Journeys

The Letters 1

Epilogue 341

Glossary of Names, Places, Works and Topics 345

Diary of Meetings 365

App. 1 The History of Janacek's Letters to Kamila Stosslova 371

App. 2 Civil Court in Brno: Janacek against Janackova 374

Note on Sources 378

Bibliography 379

General Index 384

Index of Janacek's Works 395