Jan Dismas Zelenka

Composer

Zelenka playing, on the left of the pictureThe picture shows Zelenka playing on the left of the group. (source: http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/zelenka)

If you like baroque music and have not explored the music of the Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka, we recommend you listen to some!

Quoting from Alastair Kidd – Discover Zelenka website:

Most musicologists dealing with music of this period agree that the compositions of this long-forgotten musical giant approach or equal those of his contemporaries Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Telemann in their advanced use of counterpoint, their extreme demands on the players and singers, their ingenuity and resourcefulness, and their overall beauty .

Much of Zelenka's music will seem timeless and unrestricted. Yet he was greatly inspired by the Italian masters of the 1500s and 1600s such as Palestrina and Frescobaldi. As a result of his strong individuality within the baroque tradition, Zelenka's music holds many surprises.

Zelenka wrote instrumental music (including orchestral suites and chamber sonatas), a great amount of church music of various kinds, and also religious music for the "stage". During Zelenka's final years, much of his music was inspired by Italian opera, which became fashionable in Dresden about fifteen years before he died. No-one has yet heard all of his music, since some of it is unpublished. An ever-increasing proportion is being recorded.