I am a new Italian member of this wonderful community. First of all, sorry for my english. It is a real pleasure to find such affection towards our adored Zelenka. I have a burning desire in knowing something about his life, which lies in obscurity, and mostly the opinions of his contemporaries about his music, from the sources that have survived. We know him as a "perfect VIRTUOS", maybe because of his knowledge in musical science or for his ability with the violone, but maybe because he was a sort of very pious man, too). It seems to me very strange that a composer who had such great fame is not, at least, mentioned by the great critics and guides of musical aesthetics, as Mattheson and Scheibe, or that it is not mentioned in the Musicalisches Lexicon by Walther (1732). For example, we know that Mattheson remarked in Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739) that the great fugal masters known to him were: "J.S. Bach, J.J. Fux, G.F. Handel, Johann Krieger, Johann Kuhnau, Johann Theile, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Gottfried Walther". Our Zelenka here was not mentioned, just like wasn't mentioned when Scheibe criticized another certain great man who could be "the admiration of whole nations if he had more amenity".
What do you think?
edit: "sources", not "souces".. sorry again for the english