Music: Rebirth of an Eccentric

"Only a cut above the amateur" was British Critic Ernest Newman's scornful evaluation of Czech Composer Leoš Janáček in a 1924 review of the opera Jenufa. "Atrocious drama and wretched theater," complained a New York Times critic after a 1931 performance of From the House of the Dead. Through years of such disasters,Janáček (pronounced Ya-na-chek) remained a proud, angry man who longed desperately for recognition and stubbornly believed that his peculiar brand of musicmaking would be vindicated. Now, four decades after his death, the often maligned composer is winning the recognition and...

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