Benjamin Dreyer: Currently listening to: Leoš Janáček's Lašské Tance 🎶 Lašské tance, last chance, for love! 🎶

Currently listening to: Leoš Janáček's Lašské Tance 🎶 Lašské tance, last chance, for love! 🎶

There’s a quite delightful moment in Brian Friel‘s play Performances where Janaček, seated at the piano, describes his enjoyment of No, No, Nanette and belts out a few bars of I Want to Be Happy.

Oh, that sounds wonderful! And I'll bet that LJ was quite capable of enjoying a snappy tune, having written a number of them himself.

I found my way to LJ via The Makropulos Case because I was intrigued by the idea of, more or less, a gothic thriller science fiction opera, but it was musically way over my head (this was the early 80s) so I didn't really take to it. Now I adore it. (That happened with Richard Strauss too.)

(It still hasn't happened with Berg's Lulu, but to be fair I've given up trying.)

Wozzeck is brilliant but it's approximately as much fun as a tax audit.

It's the sort of thing I might appreciate by attending it (I suppose you could say the same about Lulu), but listening to it? Nope.

That reminds me, I had a music lecturer nearly thirty years ago who suggested that I would come to appreciate it in time. I must find out if he was correct.

It’s a fine play, but seldom performed. You need a first rate string quartet who don’t mind doing a bit of acting.

I adore Janáček. I think this recording is absolutely superb.

Janacek: Orchestral Works, Volume 1 Orchestral & Concertos Piano Chandoswww.chandos.net CHAN 5142

Yup, got it!

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