John Tyrrell – författare

Leos Janácek (1854--1928) is one of the few great opera composers of the twentieth century; his operas, orchestral, chamber, and vocal works are all part of the international repertory. This catalogue is by far the most comprehensive to appear in any language, with up-to-date and reliable information on all his works. Each entry provides detailed information on date of composition (and shows on what basis dating has been arrived at); source of text or programme; performing forces; duration; manuscripts and their locations; publication (a complete listing); performances and productions; dedication; literature. A special feature is the explanation of terms which may be unfamiliar to the western reader such as 'Glagolitic', 'Varyto', 'Lachian', and 'Indian Club Swinging'. This catalogue is also the first to include a complete, annotated list of the composer's varied and extensive writings.

Kát'a Kabanová is both the first Janácek opera to have been performed in Britain and the one which has received the most productions in Britain and the USA. In this book John Tyrrell brings together letters, early reviews and other documents (most of them translated from Czech for the first time) on the opera's composition and its early performances. A group of key interpretations of the opera ranges from one by the opera's German translator and Janácek's first biographer Max Brod to specially commissioned essays by Wilfrid Mellers and by David Pountney, producer of the highly successful Welsh National Opera/Scottish Opera Janácek cycle.

Opera is the grandest and most potent cultural expression of the nationalist movement which led to the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. During this period Czech opera developed into a genre of major artistic importance cultivated by composers of the stature of Smetana, Dvorák and Janácek. Czech Opera examines opera in its national contexts, and is a study not only of operas written in Czech, but also of the specific circumstances which shaped them. These include the historical and political background to the period, the theatres in which Czech plays and operas were first performed, and the composers and performers who worked in them. The role of the librettists is given particular prominence and is complemented by a detailed chapter on the subject matter of the librettos shedding light on the subject matter of the historical and mythic background of the genre.

John Tyrrell's biography of the Leos Janácek is the culmination of a life's work in the field. It stands upon his existing documentary studies of Janácek's operas and translations of other key sources and his examination of thousands of still unpublished letters and other documents in the Janácek archive in Brno. Altogether it provides the most detailed account of Janácek's life in any language and offers new views of Janácek as composer, writer, thinker and human being. Volume 1, which goes up to the outbreak of the First World War and Janácek's sixtieth birthday in the summer of 1914, consists of chronological chapters providing a straightforward account of Janácek's life year by year and another forty contextual chapters. Topics include on-going sequences ('Music as autobiography I', etc.; 'Janácek's knowledge of opera I', etc.) and individual chapters on Janácek as a teacher, as a theorist, as an music ethnographer, on his speech-melody theory, his relationship to particularly influential operas (Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, Charpentier's Louise), on his mentors (such as Antonín Dvorák) and his bêtes noires (such as Karel Kovarovic). A particular feature are the specially commissioned chapters on Janácek's health by Dr Stephen Lock (one of the editors of the Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine, OUP 1994 and 2001, editor of the British Medical Journal, 1975-91, and a Janácek enthusiast since the early postwar broadasts on the Third Programme), and on Janácek's earnings and finances by Dr Jirí Zahrádka (curator of the Janácek archive in Brno, and editor of authentic editions of Sárka and The Excursions of Mr Broucek).

Volume 2 opens at the the outbreak of the First World War and at the time of Janácek's lowest ebb. Within two years, however, his fortunes were transformed by the Prague production of Jenufa This led to international fame and fortune and to the magnificent creative flowering in which the elderly composer wrote most of his best-known works. His personal life was affected by his public affair with Gabriela Horvátová and his friendship with Kamila Stösslová, whom he saw as the inspiration for many of his late works.

People living in Ireland do not expect to encounter a tornado. But, why not? They have been part of the Irish climate and have tracked across the land for hundreds of years. Indeed, during the last three decades they have visited every county in Ireland. This book traces how for centuries there was not the vocabulary to record them in a way we would recognise them today. In retrieving these records new insights emerge into both the written historical record and phrases used in our contemporary accounts. It introduces those conditions in Ireland favourable for tornadoes and waterspouts. Being localised phenomena they are ill suited for capture by the meteorological network, which was designed for quite different purposes. Instead, building a database for recent years has been achieved from reports by numerous weather enthusiasts, followed by site investigations to confirm and characterise them. Many such case studies are presented from all over Ireland. Today, increasing attention is being placed upon severe weather events and their impacts. A chronology for recent decades shows that tornadoes in Ireland occur every year and may occur in any season, but no one year is typical. In addition, the vulnerability of people, built structures and aspects of the environment are explored. Potentially, they are vulnerable at any time of year and anywhere in Ireland. Finally, international comparisons show that the experience in Ireland is not so dissimilar to elsewhere. In particular, comparisons are made with data for the USA and the rest of Europe.

Comprising a brief biography and chapters written by those who worked with him, such as Janet Baker and Alfred Brendel, this is a celebration of an exceptional, creative life.By the time of his death in 2010 at the age of 84, Sir Charles Mackerras had achieved widespread recognition, recorded extensively and developed into a conductor of major international significance. In addition to areas in which he already had forged a distinctive profile (Janácek, Mozart, Handel, Sullivan) he revisited - and rethought - much of the standard repertoire. The last thirty years were particularly momentous in the coming to fruition of so manycherished projects: not only the Janácek operas but the Gilbert and Sullivan series, the Mozart operas, the two Beethoven cycles, other projects with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Schumann and Brahms at Edinburgh; the outstanding late Mozart) and at the Royal Opera House and the Met. Unspoilt by fame, and undeterred by personal tragedies and increasing physical frailty, he remained productive and inventive: for him music-making, whether with world-classsingers and orchestras or with students, was a kind of joyous oxygen that kept him going right to the end.A detailed account of his life is complemented by contributions from performers and scholars who worked closely with Mackerras, as well as interviews with his family. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and documents, and includes a comprehensive discography along with listings of many of his concert and opera performances. While SirCharles's whole life is considered, emphasis is given to his final quarter century, a period in which so many important projects were realized. This book celebrates and epitomizes an exceptional life.NIGEL SIMEONE is awriter and teacher. He has published extensively on Messiaen and Janácek and recently edited The Leonard Bernstein Letters. JOHN TYRRELL is Honorary Professor of Music at Cardiff University. He has published bookson Janácek and Czech opera and, with Sir Charles Mackerras, edited two Janácek operas. CONTRIBUTORS: Janet Baker, Alfred Brendel, Ales Brezina, Alex Briger, Rosenna East, Anne Evans, Nicholas Hytner, Simon Keenlyside, David Lloyd-Jones, David Mackie, Chi-chi Nwanoku, Antonio Pappano, Nigel Simeone, John Stein, Heinz Stolba, Patrick Summers, John Tyrrell, Malcolm Walker, David Whelton, Jirí Zahrádka.