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• Six Trio Sonatas for 2 oboes, bassoon and basso continuo
• Some Caprici, Symponies for small instrumental groups
• The Lamentations of Jeremiah
• Much Church music, masses, etc.

(Source: Jeremiah lamentations CD booklet, Geofrey Chew, 1990, hyperion; Six trio sonatas CD, William Newman, Archiv, Germany)

Javier Ortega <jortegasolar.sar.net> writes:

Jan Dismas Zelenka is a great representative of Bohemian Baroque music. He spent most of his life at Dresden. His work is very little known today.

Zelenka was son of a local organist, and was educated at Prague at a Jesuit college. In 1710 he was appointed as Violone player of the Elector of Saxony court at Dresden under kapellmeister J.D. Heinichen. Also he travelled to Vienna and Italy, but he spent most of his life at Dresden Court and as a composer of Catholic church music. Unable to promotion after Heinichen’s dead, he remained as Dresden’s bass player until his death.

<anjanhindsaol.com.uk> writes:

My understanding is that no picture of Zelenka is believed to exist. I have researched Zelenka’s music as a hobby since 1977 and have about 40 Cds of his music. Christopher Hogwood in a BBC Publication about the Trio Sonata (about 1979) included a chapter on Zelenka. He indicated that all Zelenka’s keyboard music was now lost. The critic J.A. Scheibe (and quite good composer who moved to Scaninavia - recent interesting CD) wrote adversely about J.S. Bach in the 1730s (later partly retracted) and favourably about Zelenka’s music (I think keyboard music) by comparison. Unearthing some Zelenka keyboard music would be as marvellous as finding a picture of this “dreamily pious” man.

Peter Herbert <peterandpatleosjanacek.demon.co.uk> writes: Your previous correspondent is absolutely correct. No known portrait exists of Zelenka, unfortunately. However, there is a pen and ink and wash drawing by Carl Heinrich Jakob Fehling dating from 1719. This is a picture of a celebration held at the royal Italian Garden in Dresden in 1719. The musicians are shown to one side, all dressed in “Turkish” clothes. Zelenka was a virtuoso of the Bass Viol and one such is shown at the extreme left of the group. The face is completely without detail but, since Zelenka would certainly have been expected to perform at this event, one can only assume that it is, at the least, a representation of Zelenka, if not a true portrait. The picture can be seen as part of plate 6 in Janice Stockigt’s book “Jan Dismas Zelenka”, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-816622-2

• http://musicabohemica.org
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Dismas_Zelenka

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