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Princeton Legacy Library
Intimate Letters: Leoš Janáček to Kamila Stösslová
These are the letters of a great love story. In 1917, the Czech composer Leos Janáček met Kamila Stösslová while on holiday at Luha�ovice, a spa resort in Moravia. He was sixty-three and locked in a loveless marriage; she was twenty-six, the wife of an antique dealer frequently away from home. After the holiday, Janáček began writing to Stösslová. Undeterred by her lack of interest in his work and her spasmodic replies, he continued to send her letters until his death eleven years later. An extraordinarily self-revealing portrait emerges of an isolated artist at the height of his creative powers and the beginning of his international fame. It is also a portrait of a lonely man who, as the years went by, came to fantasize about Stösslová as his true "wife"--the inspiration for many of the works of his old age.
Most of these letters were suppressed until changing conditions in Czechoslovakia allowed their full publication in 1990. John Tyrrell has edited and translated a comprehensive selection, concentrating on the almost daily letters of the final eighteen months. Supported by a diary of meetings between Janáček and Stösslová, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters, and a selection of mostly unknown photographs, this remarkable book breathes life into the story one of the greatest of operatic composers and provides vital clues to the nature of his creative genius.
Originally published in 1994.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Most of these letters were suppressed until changing conditions in Czechoslovakia allowed their full publication in 1990. John Tyrrell has edited and translated a comprehensive selection, concentrating on the almost daily letters of the final eighteen months. Supported by a diary of meetings between Janáček and Stösslová, a decoding of the erotic references in the letters, and a selection of mostly unknown photographs, this remarkable book breathes life into the story one of the greatest of operatic composers and provides vital clues to the nature of his creative genius.
Originally published in 1994.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
- GenresMusic
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
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20 people want to read
About the author
Leoš Janáček
242 books2 followersLeoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European folk music, to create an original, modern musical style.
Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research. While his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák, his later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works. Along with Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, he is considered one of the most important Czech composers.
Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research. While his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák, his later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works. Along with Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, he is considered one of the most important Czech composers.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 27, 2019
"I flee from people. That’s not good. Who to talk to anyway ?
There’d be one talk which I’d long for, which doesn’t need words."
"It’s all hurry in our life - and longing."
"Why does everything disappear so soon and why do these memories turn into tears ?"
"Memories – they’re like a faded flower. And I’d like to smash them to pieces, at least they wouldn’t hurt any more."
"I have a little devil who’s sometimes naughty and sometimes is close to tears. Do you know her ?
I’ve put her into my heart, and now that heart sings out such notes, now laughter and then crying !"
"I, a passionate person by nature, naturally look for and need a soul in which there would be warm feeling and sympathy.
You came into my path by fate - and from then I have in myself something to caress, something to get pleasure from.
Is there anything bad in it, am I a bad man because of it ?"
"It seems to me that you’re a star which has its course in the heavens and I another one; I run along my own course, I think that I’ll soon
catch up with that first little star, I run and I run - but not a bit of it !
Our courses never meet. They smile at each other - that’s all."
"I’m as if without a soul. I turn everything down, I sit around at home. I don’t speak, I sit lost in thought. They ask me why and I don’t know.
Answer, let me know where my thoughts should go in search of you."
"I’ll never hide anything. I don’t know how to, I don’t know such hypocrisy. You’re so dear to me, so good, you’re half of my soul ! It’s
impossible to hide anything.
You don’t lure me. It’s like when you let go of something it falls to the ground and doesn’t fly to the ceiling. So I fall to you."
There’d be one talk which I’d long for, which doesn’t need words."
"It’s all hurry in our life - and longing."
"Why does everything disappear so soon and why do these memories turn into tears ?"
"Memories – they’re like a faded flower. And I’d like to smash them to pieces, at least they wouldn’t hurt any more."
"I have a little devil who’s sometimes naughty and sometimes is close to tears. Do you know her ?
I’ve put her into my heart, and now that heart sings out such notes, now laughter and then crying !"
"I, a passionate person by nature, naturally look for and need a soul in which there would be warm feeling and sympathy.
You came into my path by fate - and from then I have in myself something to caress, something to get pleasure from.
Is there anything bad in it, am I a bad man because of it ?"
"It seems to me that you’re a star which has its course in the heavens and I another one; I run along my own course, I think that I’ll soon
catch up with that first little star, I run and I run - but not a bit of it !
Our courses never meet. They smile at each other - that’s all."
"I’m as if without a soul. I turn everything down, I sit around at home. I don’t speak, I sit lost in thought. They ask me why and I don’t know.
Answer, let me know where my thoughts should go in search of you."
"I’ll never hide anything. I don’t know how to, I don’t know such hypocrisy. You’re so dear to me, so good, you’re half of my soul ! It’s
impossible to hide anything.
You don’t lure me. It’s like when you let go of something it falls to the ground and doesn’t fly to the ceiling. So I fall to you."
January 9, 2008
Fans of Janacek, or of letters should definitely check this out. Pretty heartrending stuff--right straight through until he dies. One of history's great forbidden love affairs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews