Janacek story #1: Frankfurt performance

Leos Janacek

Vilem Tausky

@ 1967 Saul Steinberg

Quoting from a 1925 recollection by Vilem Tausky in "Leos Janacek: Leaves from His Life" (Vilem & Margaret Tausky, NY, NY: 1982):
In Frankfurt there was only one rehearsal for the Concertino, arranged on the morning of the concert, because the members of the theatre orchestra could not be released from the rehearsals for the Festival. Janacek, himself, was present at the rehearsal, as was Dr. Vaclav Stepan Bonka's husband. The rehearsal was very tempestuous, because the members of the orchestra were very tired from constant rehearsing for the festival, and showed no interest in serious study. They evidently underestimated Janacek's work, and not realizing the particular requirements from each player, thought it would be enough to play it through once. The parts, at which they gave a cursory glance, didn't tell them much; they seemed quite simple, so the players felt quite confident.
We started to rehearse. The viola player sat relaxed next to me, legs crossed, cigarette dangling; he smoked, and occasionally played something -- the others, similarly. After the first few bars Janacek jumped up and ran over to the unfortunate viola player: "Hey, my dear sir, what do you think you are playing?" -- he stamped, shouted and sang, showing the way it should be played, and the stupefied viola player, by constantly repeating the typical Janacek figures, managed to understand this completely unknown idiom, so that in the end his cigarette fell out of his mouth, and he lost all inclination to smoke. 
Staring in amazement, his colleagues watched this scene, and I expected now that it would come to an embarrassing and stormy exchange of views. However, the German colleagues, as I noticed later in the rehearsal, were excellent artists, and with their musicianly instinct they recognized that they were playing for a composer of distinction."

I received this book from composer Eric Stokes' private library a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't take much for me to imagine Eric reading this caption aloud to an assembled crowd of colleagues, students and friends in the back room of his house. We'd eaten a meal, drunk some wine or beer and each one of us has been asked to read aloud or recite a poem or demonstrate a magic trick for the entertainment of everybody. And then we would play Exquisite Corpse or sing in four-part harmony or tell a progressive ghost story (something that we would all be invited to contribute to). These high points are the things I recall spending time with Eric.
I can also imagine Villem Tausky sitting in a back room with Leos, entertaining the assembled. 
Here's another story.

---