Posts by djdresden
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Thanks Msl, this is an exciting release for all Zelenka fans, and a very welcome continuation of the outstanding Supraphon series Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague.
Zelenka did possess “6 Psalmi di Domenica” by Brixi according to Jan Stockigt:
"Score and parts missing from Dresden. A note jotted by Zelenka at the conclusion of his Inventarium sketches a program for a Marian Vespers, or the feast of a female Saint, Virgin, or Martyr. The settings represent a mixture of composers drawn from Zelenka’s psalm collection. The note reads: ‘19. Dixit Brixi; 20. Laudat[e] pue[ri] Brixi; 12. Laetatus [sum] Foschi; 9. Nisi; à parte 3 Lauda Jerusalem Zelen[ka]; 2 1 10 Mag[nificat] Brixi’. The numbers given by Zelenka are based upon numbers used for psalm listings given in his Inventarium. Therefore, this list was compiled between Zelenka’s Lauda Jerusalem compositions from either 1727 (ZWV 104) and c1728 (ZWV 102), and before the mid-1730s when several psalms from the sequence Vesperae de Confessore were taken over into the ‘Psalmi varii’ (1735?) and re-numbered. This list reveals that Brixi’s settings of Dixit Dominus, Laudate pueri, and Magnificat were in Zelenka’s psalm collection between c1727–8 and the mid-1730s.
NB: Zelenka’s note ‘P’ accompanies each listing in the Inventarium.
See Stockigt, ‘Vespers Psalms of Jan Dismas Zelenka’, App. 2, 626–9.”
http://hofkirchecatalogo1765.m…-volumes/article/37-brixiAlso, an entry into the 1765 catalogue of the Catholic church in Dresden listed the following score and parts, now also missing:
18 Psalmi per tutto l’annoZelenka’s Benedictus Dominus (ZWV 206) Prague source probably stems from Brixi, according to Jana Vojteskova. Recently, Kjartan Óskarsson provided a fresh insight on Brixi’s copy of Zelenka’s aria “Recordare, Domine” from the sepulchre cantata Immisit Dominus pestilentiam (ZWV 58, 1709), in his article on Zelenka and the Chalumeau, see Clavibus unitis (2019/1, pp. 55-56): https://www.acecs.cz/media/cu_2019_08_01_oskarsson.pdf
The Hipocondria Ensemble is yet another excellent group from Prague, and with some very familiar faces. I very much recommend their other releases: the Cernohorsky CD has some magic moments, so does the CD Music in Prague Cathedral.
https://youtu.be/Zm3eU1RxHycI look forward to purchase a copy of Brixi in Prague next month, during the Zelenka Festival!
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The Conference Program for the 2021 Zelenka Festival has just been announced (abstracts should follow soon):
http://www.zelenkafestival.cz/…a-conference-prague-2021/
"We cordially invite you to the Seventh Zelenka Conference to be held in Prague on October 16, 2021. The conference is organized by Ensemble Inégal, under the auspices of Institute of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno. Ensemble Inégal is a baroque music ensemble with a long term dedication to the life and work of J. D. Zelenka, and which is behind several concerts and premiere recordings of previously unknown compositions by this composer. Since 2015, this annual conference has presented a lot of new and crucial information about the life and work of Jan Dismas Zelenka and related topics. Thanks to the publication of many papers through the peer-reviewed online catalogue Clavibus Unitis, the process of research and discovery of new facts have been set in motion. The conference is part of the long-term project Zelenka Festival Prague Dresden."
Saturday 16. 10. 2021 | 09.30 – 17.00 Central European Time; 17.30–1.00 [Saturday] Australian EST – Velkopřevorský palác, Velkopřevorské náměstí 4, Malá Strana, Praha 1
PUBLISHING AND EDITING THE MUSIC OF JAN DISMAS ZELENKA: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
(9.30 – 11.30)
Chaired by Janice Stockigt9.30 – 10.00
Michael TALBOT (read by Professor Samantha OWENS): A Few Thoughts on a Zelenka Collected (or even Complete) Edition
10.00 – 10.20
Jiří K. KROUPA: Czech Zelenka editions until 2000
10.20 – 10.40
Andrew FRAMPTON: Towards a Critical Zelenka Complete Edition: Problems and Possibilities
10.40 – 11.00
Denis COLLINS: Editing Zelenka’s Music: The view from Music Analysis
11.00 – 11.20
Frederic KIERNAN: The challenges of editing Zelenka’s “Gaude laetare” (ZWV 168)
Discussion: 10 minutes
11.30 – 12.00
BREAK
CURRENT ISSUES IN THE EDITING OF BAROQUE MUSIC
(12.00 – 14.00)
Chaired by Thomas Hochradner12.00 – 12.20
Thomas HOCHRADNER: Introduction to the Section „Current Issues in the Editing of Baroque Music“
12.20 – 12.40
Tomasz JEZ: From the sunny side of the Sudetes. The music of Czech Jesuits in Wrocław
Discussion: 5 minutes
12.45 – 13.05
Maciej JOCHYMCZYK: The life and work of Jacek Szczurowski SJ in the light of the editions published in the Fontes Musicae in Polonia series.
Discussion: 5 minutes
13.10 – 13.30
Peter MARTINČEK: The Editing of Vocal Compositions Surviving in the Form of New German Organ Tablature
Discussion: 5 minutes
13.35 – 13.55
Alexander RAUSCH: Editing Fux operas in/for practice and theory
Discussion: 5 minutes
14.00 – 15.00
BREAK
FREE PAPERS (ANY TOPIC RELEVANT TO ZELENKA’S MUSIC, LIFE, AND TIMES)
(15.00 – 17.00)
Chaired by Tomasz Jeż15.00 – 15.20
Shelley HOGAN: Changing basses: Marin Marais’ Alcyone tempest scene as evidence of changing orchestral practices in Zelenka’s earliest Dresden years
Discussion: 10 minutes
15.30 – 15.50
Jóhannes ÁGÚSTSSON: Scheffler and Seipt: Zelenka Copyists ‘ZS 1’ and ‘ZS 2’ Revealed
Discussion: 10 minutes
16.00 – 16.20
Claudia LUBKOLL: „Watermark ‘Baroque ornament’ “
Discussion: 10 minutes
16.30 – 16.50
Václav KAPSA: A knot in the net? To the role of Bohosudov / Mariaschein in the musical contacts between Dresden and Bohemia during Zelenka’s time
Discussion: 10 minutesDue to coronavirus measures, this year’s conference will also be live-streamed. Registrants will be able to interactively participate in the online conference.
Registration is possible on the website http://www.zelenkafestival.cz
For more information see http://www.zelenkafestival.cz
http://www.facebook.com/zelenkafestival/ -
Dutch Radio:
https://www.nporadio4.nl/live21.07.2021
20.00Collegium 1704 & Collegium Vocale 1704 o.l.v. Václav Luks
Programma:
František Ignác Antonín Tůma - Stabat Mater
Jan Dismas Zelenka - Missa Omnium Sanctorum
opname van 3-7-2021, Eglise du College St.Michel, FribourgThe concert will be also be available in the radio archive later that evening.
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Friends,
the program for the Zelenka Festival 2021 has just been announced on the official website:
https://www.zelenkafestival.cz/program-2021/13 10. 2021 at 19:30 | Prague
Velkopřevorský palác | Rytířský sál | Malá Strana
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Orkiestra Historiczna (PL)
Instrumental music from the Dresdner Hofkapelle - Zelenka, Heinichen, Pisendel
14. 10. 2021 at 17:00 | Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a sv. Karla Velikého, Praha Karlov
TRADITIONAL VOTIVE MASS OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST
Tridentine Mass with Renaissance instrumental music from Zelenka’s circle of interest performed by the ensembles Spherae sonantes and Svobodné hudební bratrstvo.
14. 10. 2021 at 19:30 | Prague
Velkopřevorský palác | Rytířský sál | Malá Strana
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Ensemble Marsyas (UK) - Trio Sonatas of Jan Dismas Zelenka
15 10. 2021 at 19:30 | Prague
Kostel Marie Panny pod řetězem | Malá Strana
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Dresdner Kammerchor (DE), Ensemble Inégal (CZ)
Jan Dismas Zelenka - Missa Sanctae Caeciliae ZWV 1
16. 10. 2021 from 10:00 till 17:00 | Prague FREE ENTRY
Velkopřevorský palác (Grand Prior’s Palace), Velkopřevorské náměstí 4, Malá Strana, Praha 1
ZELENKA CONFERENCE PRAGUE 2021
Full program to be announced
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17. 10. 2021 Dresden
Annenkirche
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Dresdner Kammerchor (DE), Ensemble Inégal (CZ)
Jan Dismas Zelenka - Missa Sanctae Caeciliae ZWV 1It is my hope that many of you will be able to travel and attend this delicious program, and by doing so showing your support for what has become the most important and enjoyable week of the year! The conference promises also to be interesting, with the focus being on publishing and editing the music of Zelenka in the past, present and future. Contributions from distinguished scholars such as Michael Talbot, Fred Kiernan, Andrew Frampton and Janice B. Stockigt (who will chair the morning session) highlight the great importance of the annual conference for Zelenka research. It is my intention to give a paper on two of Zelenka’s closest working colleagues, the copyists known in the literature as ZS1 & ZS2 (ZS= Zelenka-Schreiber), who worked with the composer from the early 1730s and onwards, and as such were among the first editors of his music. The identity of these two persons has until now been a mystery
, but the time has come to reveal their true names:).The Zelenka Festival and Conference needs your support. So book a ticket, and make sure you do your part! I look forward to see you in Prague.
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It would be nice to hear your edition one day.
RISM lists two other Austrian copies (in parts) of the Breunich Miserere in f-moll, in the Kremsmünster and Lambach music archives. Haunting you say...
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The Hungarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra, live 13.5.2021
Jan Dismas Zelenka: c-moll miserere ZWV 57; D-dúr requiem ZWV 46
Kovács Ágnes (szoprán),
Balogh Eszter (alt),
Komáromi Márton (tenor),
Najbauer Lóránt, Melkovics Zoltán (basszus)
Magyar Rádió Énekkara és Szimfonikus Zenekar
Vez.: Vashegyi György -
Recordings of these Masses are urgently needed: ZWV 2 and of course 15. Hopefully Ensemble Inegal will record 4, which they performed in Prague couple of years ago. New recordings of 11 and 13 are needed, too.
Complete recordings of Sub tuum ZWV 157 and the six Ave Reginas of 128.
The 1724 Te Deum ZWV 145 and Lamentationes ZWV 54.
Requiem ZWV 49.
The six trumpet fanfares ZWV 212.
The secular motet Qui nihil sortis felicis videt ZWV 211 – one of the most pleasant and joyful Zelenka compositions. And all the antiphons, psalms and hymns…….
In addition to the above, I think it is necessary for us to hear music composed by some of Zelenka’s colleagues and students, f.e. Buz, Kaÿser, Uhlig, Harrer and Schürer, and also the music of many of the composers he collected in his inventory. This helps us to further appreciate and understand the music heard in the Catholic court church during Zelenka’s tenure and how it influenced his compositions.
In this context, we also need more recordings of Ristori and Heinichen. After a flurry of 1990s CD releases with the orchestral and sacred music of the latter a long lull followed, but two recent recordings have demonstrated again what a brilliant composer Heinichen was. The first is the CPO release of the opera Flavio Crispo (1720), and the second a Batzdorfer Hofkapelle CD with Italian cantatas and concertos (Accent). Both come highly recommended. The 2018 CPO release of three of Ristori’s sacred works, a Mass, a Miserere and a Litany of Saint Xaver, is a great example of why he was so dearly loved at the Dresden court. The music is beautiful and moving. The Litany dates from the 1720s and comes from the private collection of Maria Josepha; Zelenka must have directed a performance of this (in the early 1730s when Ristori was in Moscow and Warsaw, or/and between 1738 and 1740 when he was in Naples) since his performance markings are found in the leather-bound autograph (D-Dl, Mus.2455-D-1).
And then there is Breunich who, along with Ristori, succeeded Zelenka as church composer in 1746, but was already in 1741 working alongside the Bohemian in Dresden. Apart from an old 7” with a flute concerto and even older LP with a Te Deum (1739), not a single note has been released on CD of Breunich’s music. Recently, a cache of his sacred works, a part of the SLUB collection taken to Russia in 1945, has been scanned by the Russian National Library and placed online. Perhaps this will result in an increased awareness and much needed performances. The same applies to Zelenka’s teacher, Kapellmeister Johann Christoph Schmidt. What a bummer that so much of his oeuvre is lost. But what I have heard is very very good indeed.
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Yes Seb, another holy moment with the Master. What an incredibly beautiful work this is and with many familiar passages reused in later works. It was well worth the long wait. Glad that Luks and Collegium 1704 did record this, as it links nicely with their epic recording of ZWV 55. The ensemble sounds very good, the tempo is natural and overall it’s a performance of great maturity and elegance.
As for the circumstances for the request of prince Friedrich August to Zelenka to omit the Miserere in 1722, this has been explained by Jan Stockigt (as I did recount in a Forum entry in 2010):
"There was a reason for this (as Jan Stockigt has pointed out in her paper about the churchings of Crown Princess Maria Josepha); at the time Maria Josepha was pregnant and probably could not sit still for long. In fact she would have complications and the boy she gave birth to, the wonderful friend of music Friedrich Christian, was born with a congenital physical defect [cerebral palsy]."
Re the Miserere performed in 1737: I seriously doubt ZWV 56 was the long work heard on that occasion, there’s nothing there for the Italian castrati and trombones were, according to the late Wolfgang Horn, not used in Dresden after 1725. ZWV 57 is composed in 1738. But Zelenka directed not only his own works in the Catholic court church, but also those of others. By the mid-1730s he had several settings of the text in his grand-arsenal, including at least three prepared at exactly that time. The longest might be by Villicus – the score (D-Dl, Mus.2820-D-1) is 67 pages (I have not counted the bars). The score copied by ZS1 is from the mid-1730s, with Zelenka markings and additions. Another setting copied by the same scribe at the time is by Caldara (Mus.2170-E-4); his music was performed often during this period. Another Miserere from Zelenka’s collection that comes to mind is the third setting of "Signor. G:K:", which I have argued is Zelenka’s student and fellow double bass player of the Hofkapelle, Johann Samuel Kaÿser (Giovanni Kaÿser), who worked closely with the Bohemian from 1733 onwards. The score of the third G:K: setting has been dated by ca. 1736-1739 by W.Horn. The settings by Gottlob Harrer and Augustin Uhlig, two other Zelenka students, also date from this period but are shorter I think.
Finally, while I am thrilled with the great new recording of ZWV 56, my heart sinks when I read the accompanying notes. There’s just so much which is wrong and factually incorrect there, it’s embarrassing. I can not understand why such a brilliant orchestra, which takes such good care of all the smallest details in the music, can present these badly informed texts to its listeners. Anyway, I do hope that someone can open up the eyes of Luks and co. to all the fine studies that have been published in the last 10 years about the life of our composer.
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Lovely recording (modern day premiere?) of this jewel, which Zelenka later reworked into the Salve Regina (ZWV 135). ZWV 204 is still listed as “Doubtful” in the Zelenka work list but as Jan Stockigt states in her database this needs to be reconsidered:
http://hofkirchecatalogo1765.m…ca-senza-nome-dell-autore
Listen here:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkul…ml?dram:article_id=482985Werke von J. de Modena, A. Crotti, A. Jarzębski, A. Grandi, G.F. Händel, A. Vivaldi, J.D. Zelenka
Johanna Winkel, Sopran
Ensemble Bassonore - Tabea Höfer, Violine
Claudius Kamp, Blockflöte, Dulzian
Adrian Rovatkay, Dulzian, künstlerische Leitung
Arno Schneider, Orgel
Dorfkirche, Herzfelde, 15.08.2020The Salve Regina starts when 22 mins are remaining of the concert.
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And, to add to the entry above, this is not to be missed at any cost: Luks and Collegium 1704 performing Zelenka’s arrangement of Caldara’s stunning Missa Matris Dolorosa, from the masked Sepultura Domini session last April, as first introduced by MSL in April here in the Forum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI09tstj_3Y
I have four fine recordings of this Caldara Mass but this live performance tops it all. Zelenka figured the bass line and added dynamics sometime after 1725, according to Jan Stockigt. Judging by certain words/letters as written by the hand of Zelenka's still mysterious copyist ZS 0, I would place the Dresden manuscript close to, or soon after, 1730, as indeed reflected by its position in Zelenka’s Inventarium at Nr. 34 (Missa Xaverii ZWV 12 (1731/32) is the next entry at Nr. 35).
The great Caldara was much performed in Dresden, not only by Zelenka but also by Heinichen, who had at least three works of the Italian composer in his collection. In my 2019 Zelenka conference paper on the Dresden Hofkapelle bass player and Zelenka's student/colleague/assistant Johann Samuel Kaÿser, I suggested that our composer used Caldara’s music to instruct Kaÿser in the art of composition, as demonstrated by their jointly copied manuscript of Caldara’s Missa dicta Reformata. Hopefully, Luks will perform that work one day, or the similarly fascinating Zelenka arrangement of Caldara’s Missa Quia mihi et tibi, whose multi-layered parts are still preserved in the Dresden Library (SLUB), documenting a performance history of several decades.
Jóhannes
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Friends,
earlier this month Vaclav Luks and Collegium 1704 performed at the Smetana Festival in Litosmysl. The exciting program included what is announced as the modern day premiere of Credo ZWV 31, which Zelenka wrote as an insert into his reworking of Caldara’s Missa Providentiae. This Credo is yet another brilliant piece from the pen of our composer, with a haunting Crucifixus and wonderful Amen fugue. Jan Stockigt dates the Credo from c.1728, the remarkably rich “Psalmi Vespertini” period, and there are certainly some echoes to those settings.
The excellent concert of Collegium 1704, which also included a beautiful Kyrie for two choirs and a Crucifixus by Caldara, in addition to a fine setting of Dixit Dominus by Galuppi, can be heard through this link:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkul…ml?dram:article_id=480250
The website of Collegium 1704 announces a string of truly mouthwatering Prague concerts in the upcoming season. As is expected, Zelenka is well represented, for example with the Miserere ZWV 56, which one hopes will be recorded for release sooner rather than later. The real highlight for me is the concert of Telemann’s Brockes Passion (1716), which is the finest setting of the famous text. The music is incredibly powerful from start to finish as heard on the fantastic 3CD recording of Nicholas McGegan on Hungaroton. So I am hoping this April 2021 concert will be broadcast at some point.
Jóhannes
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Thanks Msl, this is very welcoming news and I look forward to get a copy. What I read from the introduction gives me great hope that the author has done his homework and is well up to date with the current literature, as he clearly states here:
"Se in passato non sono stati pochi i tentativi di presentare Zelenka come una persona cupa ed austera, solitaria e misantropa, incompresa e rassegnata, contribuendo ad una sorta di ritratto romantico ante litteram, oggi come oggi molti di questi profili sono stati puntualmente ridimensionati, come, si spera, risulterà anche da questa nostra ricerca, nella quale abbiamo accuratamente evitato di colmare le molte lacune con aneddoti e conclusioni prive di fondamento:”
Enjoy the Festival-Conference! See you there.
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The full program of the upcoming conference has been announced, see below. There are some really interesting papers this year and the one I am looking most forward to is from Pavel Jurák, who will argue that three anonymous sacred works (now missing) in Zelenka’s inventory were composed by the great Porpora. We know that Zelenka owned opera arias of Porpora but I have always found the absence of his sacred works in Zelenka’s collection to be somewhat strange. It will be exciting to hear if Jana Perutková, one of the finest Czech musicologists, has new information about performances of Zelenka’s oratorios in the Bohemian and Moravian lands. Jan Stockigt’s study of Zelenka’s first Mass comes at a great time with the eagerly awaited CD recording of Ensemble Inegal to be released later this year. Andrew Frampton’s forensic research into Zelenka's music continues and this year he will tackle a neglected part of Zelenka studies, namely how the composer reworked and reused parts of his own compositions. Sadly, Shelley Hogan can not be with us so her paper will be read by Samantha Owens. Throughout the years I have here in the forum referred to Shelley’s in-depth study of the basso continuo section of the Dresden Hofkapelle, and now we finally get to hear what she has found. A special guest is the brilliant David Irving who will demonstrate the difference between the French and Italian bowing techniques used by the concert master Woulmyer and his successor Pisendel. In my paper I will present the fruits of my continuing research in the Dresden archives, while using the opportunity to crush a couple of especially annoying myths... And finally, with the conference dedicated to the memory of Wolfgang Horn, it is fitting that Fred Kiernan shares with us details from his wide-ranging interview with Horn.
ZELENKA CONFERENCE 2019
k uctění památky profesora Wolfganga Horna / in honour of the memory of Professor Wolfgang Horn
Pátek / Friday 18. 10. 2019
Knihovna muzikologického odd. Ústavu dějin umění AV ČR Praha,
Puškinovo náměstí 447/9, Praha 6PROGRAM
Předsedající / Chair: Samantha Owens (University of Melbourne)
10:00 – 10:10
Zahájení / Opening
10:10 – 10:50
Jóhannes ÁGÚSTSSON (Reykjavík): “Johann Samuel Kaÿser (1708-1750): Composer, Double Bass Player and Zelenka’s Colleague and Assistant”
10:50 – 11.05
Přestávka / Coffee break
11:05 – 11:30
Janice STOCKIGT (University of Melbourne): “The Genesis and Evolution of Zelenka’s Missa Sanctae Caeciliae (ZWV 1)”
11:30 – 12:00
David IRVING (ICREA, Institució Milà i Fontanals, Barcelona): “French and Italian Bowholds in the Early Eighteenth Century: Implications for Musical Change within the Dresden Hofkapelle”
12:00 – 14:00
Oběd / Lunch
14:00 – 14:30
Jana PERUTKOVÁ (Ústav hudební vědy, Filozofická fakulta Masarykovy univerzity Brno): „Oratoria, určená k provádění u Božího hrobu v českých zemích a Rakousku v 18. století a případ Zelenka“
14:30 – 15:00
Andrew FRAMPTON (University of Oxford): “Hidden in Plain Sight: Parody and Reworking in the Sacred Vocal Music of Jan Dismas Zelenka”
15: 00-15: 15
Přestávka / Coffee break
15: 15- 15:45
Shelley HOGAN (University of Melbourne): “A Reconstruction of Zelenka’s Early Membership in the Dresden Hofkapelle” (To be read by Samantha Owens)
15:45 – 16:15
Pavel JURÁK (Ústav hudební vědy, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, Praha): „Nicola Porpora v Inventáriu Jana Dismase Zelenky“
16:15 – 16:45
Frederic KIERNAN (University of Melbourne): „Wolfgang Horn and Zelenka“ -
This is terrific news. With these works to be released by Luks, Ensemble Inegale's upcoming release of ZWV 1 & ZWV 166, plus the recent release of ZWV 191, we are getting closer to having Zelenka’s complete works recorded.
I am especially hoping that someone will take on these works sooner rather than later:
ZWV 15 Missa Eucharistica (1733)
ZWV 128 Six Ave Regina settings (1737)
ZW 211 Qui nihil sortis (1730s) – anyone who heard this in Prague couple of years ago was blown away by the sheer brilliance of this duet.
and of course the ZWV 56 Miserere… and the ZWV 212 Trumpet fanfares… and ZWV 4, and... -
Please note that the Festival/Conference dates were incorrectly given in the official website, but this has now been fixed. The program looks like this, with the conference taking place on Friday 18th and the ZWV 16 / ZWV 166 concert later that evening, and the Dresden performance the following day:
16th of October 2019 at 7.30PM – Praha / venue yet to be announced
From Zelenka´s personal collection of secular vocal music: G. A. Haase / A. M. Bononcini / N. Porpora
Musica Aeterna / Peter Zajíček – artistic director17th of October 2019 at 7.30PM – Praha / kostel Panny Marie pod řetězem, Lázeňská 2, Praha 1 – Malá Strana
J. D. Zelenka: Sepolcri
Collegium Marianum / Jana Semerádová – artistic director18th of October 2019 from 10AM to 18PM – Praha / venue yet to be announced
Zelenka Conference Prague 201918 of October 2019 at 7.30PM – Kostel Panny Marie pod řetězem, Lázeňská ul., Praha 1 – Malá Strana
19 of October 2019 at 17.00PM – Annenkirche, Dresden
J. D. Zelenka: Missa purificationis Beatae Virginis Mariae ZWV 16 & Currite ad aras ZWV 166 (World Premiere!)
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Thank you dear Leszek for sharing this wonderful letter.
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Dear friends,
it is with a heavy heart that I report the tragic death of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Horn, one of the great Zelenka scholars.
Horn’s dissertation “Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik 1720–1745" was published in 1987 and stands as one of the landmark academic publications on the sacred music of the Dresden baroque, and Johann David Heinichen and Zelenka. He was also one of the main editors of the groundbreaking two-volume publication “Zelenka-Dokumentation” (1989), which brought together all source materials that were available at the time, transcripts of documents, timeline of Zelenka’s life, and discussion of his complete works in the form of what we all know as ZWV. In addition, Horn published a number of important articles on Zelenka, including his absolutely brilliant study on Zelenka’s main copyists. Most importantly, Horn prepared numerous choral editions for publishers like Breitkopf und Härtel and Carus-Verlag, thus making the works of our composer accessible to musicians all over the world and their listeners.
When Adam Viktora announced that Horn was going to give a paper at the first Zelenka Festival-Conference in Prague in 2015, we were all thrilled. It was there were many of us first met the kind and warm person who we admired so much for his contribution to Zelenka’s research and revival. After the concerts and conferences in 2016 and 2017 we all listened in the restaurant Konírna with great attention to Horn, when he spoke of how he went about acquiring copies from the SLUB in the early 1980s, at a time when Germany was still divided. Horn, then an university student in Tübingen in West Germany, established a trusting connection with the late Wolfgang Reich in the SLUB in Dresden, who warmly welcomed Horn’s approach and passionate interest in Heinichen, Zelenka and the baroque music holdings of the library; the two went on to swap materials over a period of time, thus enabling Horn to finish his study and during the process becoming the leading authority on Zelenka’s music alongside Jan Stockigt. The whole story is nothing short of remarkable and one that must not be forgotten.
When first meeting Horn in 2015 I sensed that he was pleasantly surprised but also very excited to see a new generation of scholars working on Zelenka. He sincerely felt that he still had much to give, and I for one was looking so very much forward to share with him my recent research and findings, which heavily rely on and complement his study on Zelenka’s copyists.
Horn’s death at the age of 63 is a huge loss to Zelenka research and publication. On behalf of the members of the Zelenka Forum I send his family our deepest condolences.
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The accompanying piece is the offertory Currite ad aras (ZWV 166), which Zelenka composed in Vienna in June 1716. So it's a very welcoming early Zelenka program for the next CD. Let's hope we'll hear these works at the Prague-Dresden concerts in the upcoming Festival-Conference in October.
