Jana Semerádová: Zelenka’s lamentations are like a spiritual opera
(c) Petra Hajská Czech record label Supraphon continues mapping works of the baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679 – 1745), a native of Louňovice pod Blaníkem, who at about the age of thirty connected his professional life with the Dresden court of Augustus II the Strong, and here created compositions close by their originality and impressiveness to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. There may be no music history textbook without mentioning that Zelenka wrote an allegorical play about the life of St. Wenceslaus Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis for the occasion of the coronation of Charles VI King of Bohemia (the composition was performed in 1723 in Prague Clementinum). However Zelenka’s main field was sacred music: masses, requiems, oratorios, psalms and hymn settings, lamentations… If we look at the compositions written for Holy Week, Supraphon so far recorded Sepolcris (SU 4068-2) and Responsories (SU 3806-2). The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet (Lamentatio Jeremiae...