Friends of Radio 3 Forum Radio 3 Composer File PDA View Full Version : Bella, Ján Levoslav french frank Not a name I'd ever come across until I got the recent MDT catalogue with two CDs (Marco Polo) of string quartets/quintet (the second not yet available).
http://www.hc.sk/foto/bella_jan_levoslav.jpg
Ján Levoslav Bella (1843-1936)
I wonder whether the opera buffs (Reiner? Inquisitor?) have come across his operas Jaroslav a Laura and Wieland der Schmied ... possibly not? :)
The string quartets No 2 in E min and No 4 in B flat are very worthwhile: the E minor in particular has a lovely bright, edgy opening, a bit reminiscent of Mendelssohn. I might add something more detailed later when I get the second CD with the quintet.
They think a lot of him in Slovakia (that's him below, top right)
http://www.telecom.gov.sk/externe/znamky/1993/fdc9310.jpg I'm flattered you'd imagine I'd know any of Bella's operas, ff ;) Sadly I've not come across him until this moment - which is especially poor form on my part, since my great-grandparents and one grandparent were from Pressburg (present-day Bratislava). He would have been an exact contemporary of Janacek.
There's been a great deal of Czech and Slovak music reintroduced to the repertoire from the C19th and C20th, and much of it is marvellous stuff. I wonder if there are recordings (bearing in mind I have a low tolerance for snap-crackle-and-pop transfers from cylinders and 78s) of any of Bella's stage music? Hearing an operatic crack at Wieland der Schmied might be interesting :) (There was an earlier effort to turn Simrock's book into an opera, by the composer Max Zenger, in 1890 in Munich). I wonder who the "Jaroslav" is at the centre of the other opera - a historic slavic figure (Yaroslav The Wise?), or a contemporary drama? It's a strange output of work, isn't it? "Jaroslav" seems to key into the "Pan-Slavicist" movement of which Janacek was a member - and then he writes something with a German title (and in German?) too? | |
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