The Diary of One Who Vanished by Stephen Ng

Lidové noviny (“People’s Paper”)

Brno, 14 May 1916 (Translator unknown)

The above paragraph was attached to the twenty-three anonymous poems entitled From the Pen of a Self-taught Peasant, which appeared in the popular Brno daily paper published on two consecutive Sundays. Being a subscriber and regular contributor, Janáček had come across these verses (written in the Valachian dialect) and apparently took them with him to Luhačovice on his annual spa holiday in July 1917. For a long time the authorship remained a mystery, and it was not until recently that Ozef Kalda, an obscure Moravian poet, was confirmed as the author of the cycle. According to Mirka Zemanová, the author of the most recent Janáček biography, Kalda had written to a friend in 1916 stating that he had contributed the text to the paper. Unfortunately the letter lay buried among his friend’s family papers for over eighty years. In 1997 the letter was discovered by a local historian; since then Kalda has been quoted as the poet.

The main character in Zápisník zmizelého is a farmer’s teenage son named Janík, who has met a young gypsy girl named Zefka. At first he resists her tempting, beautiful eyes by sending her away. Late one day he wanders into the woods to cut a peg for his cart and finds Zefka. She teases and seduces the shy youth by showing him that “not all her skin has been darkened by the sun.” He succumbs and makes love with her in the forest. From that moment on, although he is angry at himself for betraying his moral beliefs and bringing shame to his family by falling in love with a lower class woman, he looks forward to every night when he can go to the woods and be with Zefka. According to Thomas Acord’s dissertation on the cycle, when Janík finally realizes that the gypsy is bearing his son, he decides to leave his family to be with her and live his life from then on as a gypsy.

During his spa holiday in July 1917, Janáček had met Kamila Stösslová, who had a great influence on his works in the later part of his life. According to Zemanová, Kamila only regarded him as a friend and fatherly figure, yet Janáček fell deeply in love with her and their relationship was detailed in their exchange of over 700 letters, which are published in Intimate Letters: Leos Janáček to Kamila Stösslová, edited and translated by John Tyrrell. Janáček had clearly associated Kamila Stösslová with the character Zefka. In his letter dated July 1924, he wrote to her saying: “And Kát’a, you know, that was you beside me. And that black gypsy girl in my Diary of One who Vanished – that was especially you even more. That’s why there’s such emotional heat in these works.” In fact Janík seems to be a self portrait of Janáček, hoping for the fulfillment of his fantasy. As a result, the theme of the young farmer’s flight to a new life with his beloved must have had a special appeal for him.

Composing the cycle was not a smooth process for Janáček. Soon after he returned from Luhačovice in August 1917, he wrote Kamila that “he would have a clean version finished soon.” According to Zemanová, this statement proved to be overly optimistic, as a year later he lost the desire to continue working on the piece. One could assume this attitude change was due to the fact that Stösslová was writing diplomatic responses to his love letters. Nevertheless, he continued with many revisions of the piece. In March 1919 he wrote to Kamila that he had finished the work and that more works would still follow. Although Janáček gave a completion date of June 6th, 1919 in the autograph, there are evidences of further revisions beyond that date. Later in 1919 the completed score was put away into a chest where the composer kept his unperformed music. It was ignored (probably because Janáček had focused on Kát’a Kabanová since early 1920) until his pupil, Břetislav Bakala, went through his drawers and discovered the manuscript. Bakala gave a private performance of the cycle for Janáček with his friend, tenor Jaroslav Lecián, more than a year after its completion. Janáček then revised the high tenor tessitura and changed the role of Zefka from a soprano to a mezzo. Zápisník zmizelého was finally premièred in Brno on April 18th, 1921 in Janáček’s presence, and was published later the same year. Initially, Janáček wanted a portrait of Kamila to be on the cover of the score. He invited her to the first performance in Prague, but she graciously declined his offers. In December of 1921 the Prague première was a huge success, which eventually brought the work recognition outside of Czechoslovakia.

There are a total of twenty-three poems in the cycle. One of them (number thirteen) consists of nothing but hyphens and punctuation. Janáček set all the poems in full, with the exception of some omission of verses in the tenth one. He combined the tenth and eleventh poems into a single number and wrote the “punctuation poem” as a piano solo to depict the sexual seduction mentioned earlier.

As a song cycle, Zápisník zmizelého not only depicts moods and impressions but also tells a story. As suggested by Zemanová, one can describe the cycle as a dramatic cantata, as the characters Janík and Zefka are specified and dialogue is employed. Basic stage directions appear in the score, such as when and how the mezzo should enter and exit the stage. It is indicated that the work should be performed on a half-darkened stage. In numbers nine and ten, the use of a female trio singing from offstage prevents their visual interference with the drama. In addition, directions such as attacca and Delši přestávka (long pause) are given at the end of certain numbers to show dramatic continuation between movements.

Piano Sonata ("Zulice, 1.X.05," "From the Street, 1 October, 1905")

"The white marble of the steps

of the Brno Guildhall - - -

here the bloodied worker

František Pavlík falls - - -

he came only to protest about university teaching -

and was struck down by brutal murderers"

-Leoš Janáček

The piano sonata 1.X.1905 was inspired by a tragic incident which occurred in the fall of 1905: František Pavlík, a Czech wood-worker, was killed by soldiers during a demonstration at the founding of a Czech University in Brno.

The sonata was first performed at a concert of the Brno Friends of Music Club on January 21, 1906 with the two movements titled "Presentiment" and "Elegy". It wasn't until 1924 when Janáček decided to have the work published, where it appeared under the title "October 1, 1905", "Presentiment", and "Death".

Originally a work of three movements, Janáček instead chose to destroy the last movement, which had been a monumental funeral march. He also did away with the remaining two movements in 1906, literally throwing them into the River Vltava. It wasn't until his seventieth birthday when Ludmila Tučková, the first interpreter of the work, performed the two-movement sonata for Janáček based off of the copy she had from the original performance.

About the Artists on this recording

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Stephen Ng is known as an opera, oratorio, recital, and new music performer. On the operatic stage, he was featured as the tenor soloist with De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, in nine performances of the staged version of Stravinsky’s Threni, in which the renowned Peter Sellars was the director. Internationally, he has appeared at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Cultural Centre and City Hall in Hong Kong, and on the recital series of St. John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong.

As a tenor soloist, Stephen has performed all the major works of J.S. Bach, Handel’s Messiah, as well as many major oratorios. His portrayal of the role of Evangelist in Bach’s Passions has received much acclaim, and he has performed with major early music group such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Carmel Bach Festival, Amherst Early Music Festival, and Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. With great interest in contemporary music, he was invited to participate in the Lucerne Festival Academy 2006, under the direction of Pierre Boulez. His professional engagements also include performing with Festival Internacional Cervantino (Guanajuato, Mexico), Theatre of Voices, Schönberg Ensemble (Amsterdam), Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, working with conductors such as Nicolas McGegan, Paul Hillier, Reinbert de Leeuw, Anthony Hose, Daniel Reuss, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Stephen received his Doctor of Music in voice at Indiana University, and his Master of Music degree in voice at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He was a Vocal Chamber Music Fellow at the 1997 Aspen Music Festival. Currently, Stephen Ng is Assistant Professor of Voice at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.

Mezzo soprano Jane Christeson has had a varied career in opera, oratorio and musical theater. As a solo artist, she has appeared with the opera companies of Palm Beach, Cincinnati, Orlando, Treasure Coast, Birmingham, and Grand Rapids, and she has been a featured soloist with many orchestras in the Midwestern and Southern United States. Ms. Christeson has performed as soloist with conductors such as Christopher Keene, Anton Coppola, Anton Guadagno, Julius Rudel, and Amerigo Marino, and her principal teacher is Edward White. She has also studied and coached with David Jones, Henri Venanzi, James Lockhart, and Horst Günter. . Ms. Christeson is currently an Associate Professor of Voice as well as Song and Opera Literature at Stetson University’s School of Music.

American pianist Andrea Marie Baiocchi has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. A Fellow at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and First Prize winner of the 'National Career Award' by the National Society of Arts and Letters, Ms. Baiocchi holds a Bachelors Degree and Performer Diploma from Bloomington's Indiana University, as well as a Performer's Certificate - the school's highest musical honor.

Ms. Baiocchi's concert appearances include Carnegie Hall's Weill and Zankel Halls, the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, the Austrian Embassy in Washington D.C., at Indiana University-Bloomington, the Musica Viva Series in Illinois, and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France. Her festival appearances include Schleswig-Holstein, Ravinia's Steans Institute, the Franz-Schubert-Institut, the Académie Internationale de Musique Maurice Ravel and the Académie Festival des Arcs.

This recording is made possible by a Stetson University Hand Faculty Grant

established through the generosity of Dolly and Homer Hand

with special thanks to the following people

James Woodward, Dean, Stetson University School of Music

Dennis Lamb, Patrece Robinson, Robert and Mollie Rich, Jane Christeson, Alan Bennett, Timothy Cheek,

Scarecrow Press, Carl Horne, Vickie Brownie, and Barbara Brunning,

Rebecca Bell, Sarah Edmiston, and Stephanie Lorenz

Recorded August 16-19, 2006 - Elizabeth Hall, Stetson University

Production Engineer: Stephen Robinson

Mastering/Design: Clear Note

© Clear Note Publications - 2007

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