Bretislav Bakala – Wikipedia

Bretislav Bakala (Fryšták, 12 February 1897 – Brno, April 1, 1958) was an conductor, Pianist and Czech composer.

His career took place mainly in Brno and in relation to Leoš Janáček’s music.

He studied conducting at the Brno Conservatory with František Neumann, and composition with Leoš Janáček at the school of organists. ^[first] I in 1922 was perfected under the direction of Vilém Kurz. From 1920 to 1925 and, then, from 1929 to 1931, was the director of the National Theater of Brno, debuting in this role with the Orpheus and Euridice In Gluck.

In 1921 he discovered the work booklet The Diary of One Who Disappeared of Janáček and decided to perform it for the first time in April of the same year (playing on the piano). ^[2]

On January 31, 1925 he directed the first of Bohuslav Martinet Balletto in Brno entitled Who is the most powerful in the world? ( Who is the most powerful in the world? ). ^[3] For a few months, he worked as an organist in Philadelphia in the United States, also in the role of accompanying Hans Kindler, with whom he had already successfully shot in Europe.

Since 1926 he became pianist and director of the Czech radio orchestra of Brno and, following the death of Neumann in 1929, he succeeded him as the main director of the city work. ^[3] In 1936, Bakala was appointed director of the Vach Chorus of Moravia’s teachers. The following year he performed com The Brno on Tournes radio –

In 1951 he began to teach at the newly established Academy of Music and Arts of the show “Janáček”, of Brno. ^[first] In ’56 he was appointed director and main director of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra. ^[3] In the first half of the 1950s Bakala became one of the few directors to support Martin’s music on his native land. ^[4]

Bakala concentrated his musical activity on the works of Janáček. Nine years after the first of The Diary of One Who Disappeared In 1921, Empre in Brno also directed the first of the work From a dead house , after having adapted it in collaboration with Osvald Chlubna. ^[first] Furthermore, he curated the execution of even less well -known and more rarely represented works than Janáček as The Beginning of a Romance (in ’31) e Fate (in ’34). He composed the reductions for the plan of his works, including the second movement of the Sonata per piano 1.x.1905. In addition, he wrote the arrangements of popular songs from Moravia: his wife, the soprano Marie Bakalová -šová, was a member of the work of Brno and concert singer.

Charles Mackerras described the direction of the music of Janáček by Bakala as “a milestone” in the history of the composer’s interpretation, citing in particular a version of L’Makropulos , transmitted to the Bno radio. ^[5]

Its executions include the Glagolitic Mass, the sacred masterpiece of Janáček, in addition to the Sinfonietta and at Lachian Dances ^[3] , The Fireworks by Stravinsky, the Cyrano de Bergerac by Josef Bohuslav Foerster and the symphonic poem Summer Di Otakar Ostrčil.

During a visit to the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, in 1956, Polski Nagrania created the first LP recording of the third symphony of Bohuslav Martinet, directed by Bakala. ^[4] With the Vach women’s choir he recorded Jerk , while his wife Marie Bakalová appeared in Rhymes and in the Beast Sedlák Di Antonín Dvořák. ^[2] Among the rare examples of twentieth century music, Bakala created the recordings of the Serenata in D of Novák, of the Pastoral Symphoniette of Petrželka, of the ninne nanne of Kaprál, of the Sinfonietta Military di Vítězslava Kaprálová e della suite per balletto The ghost bride di Jan Novák. ^[2]

These and other works are present in the historical archive of the Brno radio. ^[4]

Bakala’s restricted number of compositions was influenced by Vítězslav Novák and Janáček. They include a cello sonata, a string quartet, a joke for orchestra, one ninna nanna di natale and the arrangements of Janáček mentioned above. ^[3]