Leoš Janáček - Opera Suites Vol. 1 (Peter Breiner)

Information

Composer: Leoš Janáček

• Jenůfa
• The Excursions of Mr. Brouček

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Peter Breiner, conductor & arranger

Date: 2009

Label: Naxos

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Review

Janácek fans will be salivating at the prospect of a new series of suites from his operas, of which this release is billed as Volume 1. Of course, some very good ones already exist, whether José Serebrier’s arrangement of music from The Makropulos Case, or Frantisek Jílek’s excellent suites from Fate, The Cunning LIttle Vixen, and From the House of the Dead. Janácek’s operatic music is so fascinatingly mobile, visceral in its emotional impact, and direct in expression that even when it consists of little more than ostinatos and tune-fragments it’s interesting to listen to on its own, and thus far we have had no suite from his first great opera, Jenufa.

In the event, Peter Breiner’s arrangement is only partially successful. Some of his choices are puzzling. For example, he avoids using the endings of the first two acts, which could have helped in concluding a couple of the suite’s six movements. Despite freely mixing episodes from different parts of the opera (combining the preludes to the second and third acts works particularly well), he hasn’t avoided that “stop and start” quality produced by building to a climax and then cutting off abruptly. He doesn’t touch Kostelnicka’s “murder” monologue, a wonderful chunk of intense music with its own natural form. And his orchestral retouching sometimes fails to convince. Doubling the melody of Steva’s recruiting song with a glockenspiel is tacky–more like one of John Lanchbery’s Minkus ballet adaptations.

This is less of a problem in the Broucek suite. This opera, as we already know from the existing arrangement, contains tons of tuneful, gorgeous, continuous music, and Breiner’s 40 minutes quite successfully captures most of the highlights. More problematic, however, is his conducting. In the Jenufa suite his tempos tend to be stiff and stodgy, the response of the orchestra lacking in both dynamic range and sheer intensity. Again, the music from Broucek comes off better, perhaps because it’s at once more colorful and less emotionally heated, as befits a comic opera. So this disc is only a partial success; I hope the series continues under a more exciting conductor, and that Breiner sticks to Janácek’s original intentions (texturally) to the extent possible.

— David Hurwitz

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Leoš Janáček (3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, one of the most important exponents of musical nationalism of the 20th century. He studied at the Prague, Leipzig, and Vienna conservatories. His earlier works was influenced by contemporaries such as Dvořák, but later he began to incorporate his studies of national folk music and language to create a highly original synthesis. Janáček's later works, which are his most celebrated, include operas Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works.

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Peter Breiner (born 3 July 1957) is a Slovak conductor, pianist, composer, arranger and writer. A graduate of the Košice Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, he has led orchestras in Europe, Asia, North America and New Zealand. Known for Baroque-style adaptations of pop and holiday music, his albums like Beatles Go Baroque and Christmas Goes Baroque are major successes. Breiner's arrangements of national anthems were used at the Olympics, while his Janáček suites made the Chicago Tribune's top ten list in 2009. His music is also featured in films, ballets, and concert broadcasts.

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