Posts by Alistair

  • West Germany Zelenka concerts, Oct/Nov: Missa Votiva - Nuemeyer Consort, Markus Stein

    I hate to sound negative, but don't get too worked up about the Philharmonie until you have the tickets in your hand, so to speak. My own experience of their online ticket system is that it's a disaster! So buy early (months ahead if they have released the tickets) and be prepared for eventual e-mail correspondence with them if something doesn't work. Another complication is that they sometimes release the tickets late and then the whole system gets jammed -- from the number of people trying to buy them at once. :D

  • New zelenka cd by ensemble inegal

    The works included on this new disc will be ZWV 66, 72, 75, 82, 83, 108, and 97.


    I can also tell you that Ensemble Inegal's "resident" soprano Gabriela Eibenova will not feature this time!


    Regards to all, Alistair

  • Zelenka UK concerts Missa Dei Filii & more: London & Bury Court Opera

    If my memory does not fail me, performing materials for ZWV 20 changed hands in Britain maybe 8 years ago, when there was to be a performance in Edinburgh or Glasgow and there had previously been one by another group in England. The details may even be somewhere on this forum or among my old e-mails (I'm not in a position to search right now).


    The bottom line is that there should actually be a register or registry of performing materials that are available so that costs and frustration and minimised in the future. We just need someone who would be dedicated enough to organise this!

  • Second year of Zelenka Festival Prague, 13-16 October 2015

    Quote from djdresden

    For some time (actually, for a few years now) I’ve been referring to an upcoming article, co-written with Jan Stockigt, which will discuss all the new things... I am pleased to say that our article is almost finished, and soon it should be sent to a journal for publication.


    Thanks, Johannes. We look forward to reading the paper you refer to, and then we will finally be able to judge for ourselves!


    According to Jan Stockigt's book, the painting of a negative image of Zelenka as a hard-done-to individual with personality issues stretches much further back than 1987. As far as I know, and from what he told me personally, Dr Reich was working entirely alone, so it is perhaps not surprising that he built his ideas on what had been written by scholars such as Fürstenau a century or more before. That's the beauty of progress in various academic fields, whether scientific, historical, or otherwise. What has just appeared in print can carry much more weight than what has gone before. So the sooner you publish the better!

  • Plea for information about a Zelenka week well in advance next year

    The Zelenka week in Prague appears to have been a big success (read djdresden's -- Johannes' -- reports under the previous thread).


    Many thanks to Adam Viktora and others who organised it.


    If there are to be other, similar, events in future (which djdresden believes will be the case), I just want to make a plea for better forward planning and for information well in advance. I personally was frustrated at not being able to attend because of plans I could not change, and I am sure some of the other forum members felt the same. Six months' warning would be more appropriate, in order to get as good an attendance as possible.


    I do hope you read this, Adam and others.


    Alistair

  • Exciting events in Prague, October 2014

    Here are some upcoming events for a Zelenka week in Prague:


    13 October. Opening concert with Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis (ZWV 17) in the Rudolfinum in Prague. (On the program will be also the premiere performance of an as yet unknown version of
    the Mass in D major by A. Dvorak)


    14 October. Free day where Adam Viktora wants to organize a very first meeting of Zelenka fans from all over the world with a Zelenka programme - sightseeing in the Clementinum, Prague Castle, trip to Lounovice etc...


    15 October. Concert with Zelenka's orchestral compositions from 1723, with Harmonie Universelle and Ensemble Inegal (conducted by Florian Deuter).


    16 October. (The 335th anniversary of the christening of Zelenka.) Concert with Sonatas ZWV 181 performed by Ensemble Marsyas from the UK, in a beautiful hall of the Maltese Palace, possibly with a celebratory toast.


    If I get more information, I will post it here.

  • First-ever recording of a Zelenka mass

    I have been contacted by a Clemens Wolf to say that 20 "new" copies of the very first LP issue of a Zelenka mass (Missa Dei Patris ZWV 19, on Carus 53.126/7) are available:


    Marburger Bachchor,
    Hessisches Bach-Collegium
    conducted by Wolfram Wehnert.


    See http://www.jdzelenka.net/rare.htm

    The e-mail address is "clemenswolf@gmx.de". I have no more details, and I don't know the price. But remember that this is a double LP. Anyone who is interested can follow this up at their own discretion/risk. :confused:

  • Diapason D'Or for Missa Paschalis on Nibiru

    Following last month's great news that Ensemble Inégal got a Dispason d'Or award for their recording of Missa Paschalis, I have been singing the praises of the same recording to Martin Cullingford, editor of Gramophone. He has promised to pass my information on to the Gramophone reviews editor. So I'm hoping for the best. Nibiru was seemingly excluded in the past because there was no UK agent, but all that appears to have changed. I found 3 copies of the CD in question in Foyle's bookshop in the middle of London last month, and lots of other Nibiru offerings too.

  • What a discovery is this forum for me !

    That was a lovely story to read, Monika, and thanks, Sebastian, for your ever-positive comments.


    Monika, can you perhaps explain what you meant by "my way of thinking about it [Zelenka's music] has changed a lot"?


    I guess you have seen the Discover Zelenka website at www.jdzelenka.net


    Best wishes from Sweden, home of the forum and website. /Alistair

  • Downloads of recordings

    Thanks for your comments and suggestions!


    Concerning recordings, I tend to agree with you, at least for the time being. Nobody knows really what form identification of recordings will take when they are eventually "freed" from their CD heritage. So I prefer to wait and see.


    Concerning video material, impermanence of performances on YouTube is a big consideration. I have chosen to link to YouTube using their search engine, so that it is just a case of sifting through the Zelenka entries:


    http://www.youtube.com/results…nka&oq=Jan+Dismas+Zelenka


    I will keep looking at this.


    Thanks again.