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Janacek: A Composer's Life - Reviews - Book Review
Contemporary Review, Nov, 2002
Janacek: A Composer's Life. Mirka Zemanova. John Murray. [pounds sterling]25.00. 352 pages. ISBN 0-7195-4923-X. This biography has three aims: to give listeners to Janacek's music 'something of his life and background'; to inform those who have heard one or two of his operas or orchestral compositions of his other works; and, finally, to introduce English-speaking scholars to the wide range of writings not available in English including Janacek's correspondence with Kamila Stosslova, usually regarded as his mistress.
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Because the writer is herself Czech she is able not only to make use of surfaces in her native language, but to explain more fully the background -- political, social and musical against which Janacek composed. The author's main concern is with the composer as a man, a man with a 'complex personality' whose motives are even now not easy to comprehend. He and his wife were 'mismatched' and both were trapped in a difficult marriage. While the author claims that she has not 'attempted to offer major new insights into Janacek's compositions' she gives readers valuable insights into his music through her wide reading of Czech sources and her knowledge of Czech history and society during Janacek's lifetime.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
