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 Prophetae, SU 4173-2 2) were added in 2014. Collegium Marianum ensemble has materialized under the leadership of its artistic director Jana Semerádová the very first complete recording of these Lamentations in the second millennium. I am glad that despite Jana’s full schedule, it was possible to ask her a few questions regarding this project.

 

Who is the “spiritual father” of this recording?

I have always wished to record Zelenka’s Lamentations. They have been part of our repertoire for 10 years, so there was no hesitation to record them for Supraphon. Zelenka’s Lamentations are one of his best compositions; and after our collection of recordings of rediscovered Czech authors or forgotten music I considered recording of Zelenka’s more famous compositions to be a huge challenge.

 

What would you say to the choice of soloists?

Immediately I knew who I want to record with! We approached Tomáš Král, who collaborates with us for many years and during that time has become a world-class baritone. There are not many singers like Tomáš who can so truthfully and naturally sing Zelenka’s music. For it is not enough to sing perfectly, but it is also necessary to have a feel for Latin and to know rhetoric, in which Zelenka excelled. The album also features top French countertenor Damien Guillon and Austrian tenor Daniel Johannsen. Their interpretation of Zelenka is intimate as well as expressive.

 

On the CD we can listen to lamentations for Wednesday through Friday of Holy Week. What about Holy Saturday?

Zelenka wrote lamentations for all three days of Triduum, but he either did not manage, did not want or there are missing (not preserved) Lamentations the third. Lamentations were performed on the first matins of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday together with responsories, Gregorian chant and lessons. Zelenka did not write a complete set of nine lamentations, but instead of three he wrote only two for a given day. So the question is, which music was sung for the third lamentations? It is possible that polyphonic lamentations by an earlier composer were sung, or they chose plainchant. This gave us an idea to complete Zelenka’s Lamentations and since Damien Guillon and Tomáš Král are so experienced choralists, we chose plainchant lamentations.

 

These kind of compositions were intended for liturgical use. When they are recorded or performed, they are always taken out from this context. Today we are not surprised at it, nevertheless do you have any recommendations how to listen to these compositions if they are not sung during liturgy?

For me it is, of course, the ideal to play baroque music in places which correspond with their acoustics and aesthetic impression to the given program. Performances in a relevant church or hall contribute to excelling of specific qualities of baroque instruments (e.g. unlike big halls, designed for symphonic orchestras. Nevertheless, the concerts of baroque music are relatively often organized in large halls). The occasion, for which a composition was written, is an equally important aspect. Of course, this is more complicated to reconstruct, yet it shows us many contexts. If we cannot perform lamentations for every day of the Easter Triduum or Sepolcri with all Good Friday’s ceremonies, which even the most enthusiastic listener probably would not endure for their length, at least we immerse in the study of the period customs and in the case of sacred music, we meet then the form of liturgy, whose inseparable part was music. I do n

Sehling’s Christmas pastorals while cutting out of Christmas cookies. Conveniences of the present time do not spoil the magic of the music of the past.

 

Do you remember when your interest in Zelenka began?

I had been fascinated by Zelenka’s music long before I started to play the baroque flute. I started the career of a baroque flutist characteristically with the concert where we played his oratorio... I liked rewriting of Zelenka’s autographs, e.g. Alma redemptoris mater, Salve Regina. Sometimes it was hard work, he would fail in orthography, but I felt closer to his music through handwriting, I recognized his style and musical expressing of a text. And I often put his music to confrontation with Czech and Dresden authors. I had an interesting picture about the musical production of Zelenka’s time. Recordings of Zelenka’s Sepolcris and Lamentations were also results of my long-term research and discovery of forgotten treasures of Czech music.

 

Do you agree with the statement that Zelenka is a Bach's Catholic counterpart?

Yes. Even if they have a different musical language. In their time, they did not belong to mainstream composers. In one of the letters Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel wrote that his father owned Zelenka’s transcriptions and he appreciated him very much. In any case, Zelenka is beyond domestic Catholic musical production because of extraordinary difficulty of some of his compositions. He wrote so demanding and quite often complicated passages, so it really “hurts” violinists. He did not do it for showing

virtuosity, but he used all these means for musical expressing of his distinctive artistic and religious eagerness, humbleness and at the same time current celebration of the Holy Trinity.

 

If you could, what would you ask Zelenka about?

A lot of people might be interested in his destiny, why he received the name Dismas, what so serious could he do that he atoned all his life (St Dismas or a penitent thief was according to Christian tradition the man who was crucified on Jesus Christ’ right, note dj). It might be an interesting theme for a movie, but I am more interested in his sound idea. If we are getting closer with our concept to his ideal and whether that ideal corresponds to the way how at that time musicians played. Who knows, this aspects might be totally minor and a text and rhetoric were important.

I think he would be flattered by the recognition which he received in our century. I am worried that he might not like where we perform his music. It is obvious that he was a very eager Catholic and through his music he celebrated God. But I would like to assure him that by every performance of his music either in a church or in a modern hall we are closer to God.

 

Why are you so close to lamentations?

Lamentations always enthralled me. After concerts and recording where I was realizing each word and note, I know it is not only in richness of harmony, but in a complete matter of course, which Zelenka connects texts and music with, in an inner aria parts and urgency of recitatives. It is like a spiritual timeless opera, during which we experience together with singers Jeremiah’s weeping, we proclaim his message and at the end we all exclaim in one voice “convertere”, thus “turn over”! It is still the same desire for turning, for change, for preserving our country for next generations.

© Dina Snejdarova