After 28 years of intimacy, I imagine there are moments when any relationship can feel strained. Without proper maintenance, even the strongest edifice can develop fissures. Lack of appreciation, lack of trust, unapologetic exploitation, and downright condescension hasten the erosion of kindly feelings.
I’m not saying that was the case with these Czech composers, but only just emerging from the slight regard I experienced at WWFM, after nearly three decades of sharing my life’s blood, I feel an especial sympathy for those who were compelled to move on.
Happily, I have found a loving home at KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon, where my shows continue to air in syndication, while I regroup, record, and reestablish my presence.
All this is preamble to my thesis this week on “The Lost Chord,” on which I’ll present two examples of Czech composers whose newfound love resulted in flowering creativity.
Anyone at all acquainted with the life story of Leoš Janáček knows about his relationship with Kamila Stasslova. Stasslova was the married woman, 38 years Janáček’s junior, who was the recipient of his “intimate letters” (hence, the subtitle of his autobiographical String Quartet No. 2). Though the relationship was a chaste one, she instilled in the composer an ardor that propelled him to the creation of a series of masterworks that spanned his final decade. This is the music that essentially made Janáček’s reputation.
Less well-known perhaps is the case of Vitězslava Kaprálová. As both a composer and a conductor, Kaprálová undoubtedly would have achieved much greater things had her life not been cut short by tuberculosis at the age of 25. Among her teachers were Vitězslav Novák, Václav Talich, Charles Munch, Nadia Boulanger and Bohuslav Martinů.
Her relationship with Martinů deepened into one of romantic love, which fueled some of the older composer’s most powerful works, even as he grappled with his emotional turmoil, caught as he was between his wife and an irresistible attraction to his star pupil.
Kaprálová reciprocated, producing a number of pieces under Martinů’s influence, generally submitting them for his approval. One such work was the “Partita for Piano and String Orchestra,” composed in 1938 and 1939. Martinů is said to have made a substantial contribution to its final version.
But really the idea for this particular topic grew out of a consideration of Zdeněk Fibich, the unsung Czech master who was roughly nine years younger than Dvořák. Fibich lived something of a turbulent emotional life. When his first wife was about to give birth to twins, one of her sisters came to help out with the delivery. The sister and one of the newborns fell ill and died. They were followed within two years by the other child and Fibich’s wife.
Fibich promptly married another of his wife’s sisters, only to abandon her and the son she bore him, in favor of one of his pupils, Anežka Schulzová. He documented the affair, musically, in his collection of piano pieces, “Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences,” composed between 1892 and 1899. He referenced material therein in a number of works written during the last decade of his life.
One of these was the Symphony No. 2, which incorporates the musical reminiscence about the day he declared his love to Schulzová. This occurs in the second movement of the symphony, with another full-blown statement in the finale.
Alas, these Czechs are not alone in having bounced. I hope you’ll join me for “Bohemian Lifestyle: Illicit Love in Czech Music,” now exclusively in syndication. You’ll find my shows on KWAX, with a link to the times of their streaming below.
Keep in mind, the station is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour time difference – actually rather convenient for those of us located in the vicinity of WWFM. Here are the conversions of the respective air-times:
PICTURE PERFECT – Fridays on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)
THE LOST CHORD – Saturdays on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)
In radio as in life: Vítězslava Kaprálova finds new love with Bohuslav Martinů
