The Janacek Compendium

Leos Janácek (1854-1928) occupied a pre-eminent position in Moravian (and wider Czech) culture, not only as a composer but also as a folksong collector, journalist, educator and nationalist.

One of the greatest and most original composers of the early twentieth century, Leos Janácek (1854-1928) occupied a pre-eminent position in Moravian culture, not only as a composer but also as a folksong collector, journalist, educator and nationalist. His friends and associates included artists, writers, ethnographers and politicians, as well as conductors, singers and instrumentalists. Janácek’s many pupils included the conductor Bretislav Bakala and thecomposer Pavel Haas. He had important associations with publishers in Vienna and Prague and with the earliest years of Czech Radio. Janácek was strongly attached to particular places – Hukvaldy, Brno, Luhacovice – and had professional links with Prague, Berlin, London and beyond. The Janácek Compendium includes nearly 300 entries on every aspect of Janácek’s life and works, with detailed notes on all his significant compositions – above all the operas – providing the latest information to emerge about some of his most famous pieces. An extensive bibliography supports the entries, which are cross-referenced to enable wider exploration of particular topics.

Author Biography

NIGEL SIMEONE is a scholar, writer and broadcaster specializing in twentieth-century music. He was editor of The Leonard Bernstein Letters (Yale, 2013) and for the Boydell Press has published Charles Mackerras with John Tyrrell (2015), The Janáček Compendium (2019) and most recently Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adrian Boult (2022).