Janáček's "Glagolitic"

Synopsis

So what do you call a setting of the Latin mass that is not in Latin? Well, if you’re the Moravian-born composer Leoš Janáček, you call it “Glagolitic,” since your Mass sets an Old Church Slavonic text written down in a script called that.

The idea came from a clerical friend who complained about the lack of original religious music in Czechoslovakia and suggested Janáček’s do something about it. His “Glagolitic Mass” premiered in Brno on today’s date in 1927. One reviewer wrote it was “a marvelous religious work of an old composer” – to which Janacek snapped back: “I am NOT old. And I am certainly NOT religious!”

Now, people do say “you’re only as old as you feel,” and the 73-year old Janáček had for many years been in love with a much younger woman who inspired his best works, and rather than any religious convictions, Janacek told another reporter that the piece was in fact jump-started by an electrical storm he witnessed and described as follows: ‘It grows darker and darker. Already I am looking into the black night; flashes of lightning cut through it . . . I sketch nothing more than the quiet motive of a desperate frame of mind to the words ‘Gospodi pomiluj’ [Love have mercy] and nothing more than the joyous shout ‘Slava, Slava!’ [Glory].”

Music Played in Today's Program

Leos Janácek (1854-1928) Glagolitic Mass Bavarian Radio Chorus and Orchestra; Rafael Kubelik, conductor. DG 429182

On This Day

Births

• 1687 - Baptism of Italian composer, violinist and theorist Francesco Geminiani, in Lucca;

• 1870 - Czech composer Vitezslav Novák, in Kamenice nad Lipou;

Deaths

• 1791 - Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadé (aka Amadeus) Mozart, age 35, in Vienna;

Premieres

• 1749 - Rameau: opera "Zoroastre," in Paris;

• 1830 - Berlioz: "Symphonie fantastique" in Paris, with François-Antoine Habaneck conducting;

• 1837 - Berlioz: "Requiem," in Paris, François Habeneck conducting (Berlioz later claimed that at one point he had to jump on stage and take over when Habeneck stopped to take snuff, but some eyewitnesses denied this happened);

• 1865 - Brahms: Horn Trio in Eb, Op. 40, in Karlsruhe, with two musicians identified only as Strauss (violin) and Segisser (horn), with the composer at the piano; The latest edition of the Grove Dictionary lists an earlier performance in Zürich, Swizterland, on November 28 that same year, however;

• 1911 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Preludes, Op. 32 (Gregorian date: Dec. 18);

• 1927 - Janácek: "Slavonic Mass," in Brno;

• 1930 - Milhaud: Concerto for Percussion and Small Orchestra, in Paris;

• 1930 - Sessions: "The Black Maskers" Suite, in Cincinnati;

• 1947 - Barber: "Medea" Ballet Suite, Op. 23, by Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1952 - Menotti: Violin Concerto, with Efrem Zimbalist, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1991 - Zwilich: Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchesra, by the Louisville Orchestra with Lawrence Leighton Smith conducting, and soloists Jaime Laredo (violin) and Sharon Robinson (violoncello);

• 1998 - Libby Larsen: "String Symphony," in Minneapolis by the Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting

Others

• 1704 - George Frideric Handel (age 19) refuses to turn over the harpsichord to Johann Mattheson (age 23) during a performance of Mattheson's opera "Cleopatra," leading to a sword duel between the two; It is said that during the swordplay, Handel was saved by a button on his coat that deflected Mattheson's mortally-directed blade; The two reconciled on December 30 that year, dining together and attending a rehearsal of Handel's opera "Almira," becoming, as Mattheson put it: "better friends than ever."