Taraš Bulba, Rhapsody for Orchestra

Leoš Janáček loved Russian culture not wisely, but too well. In 1915, for a Czech composer to write a “Slavonic Rhapsody” based on the Ukrainian-born Gogol’s fiercely nationalistic novella Taras Bulba was provocative, to say the least. Ukraine was then part of the Russian Empire, an enemy country at the time, and Janáček kept the title and subject discreetly under wraps until the work’s premiere in 1921, long after the hostilities had ended. Taras Bulba is a bloody and tempestuous tale, and Janáček retold it as a passionate, flamboyantly coloured triptych for a large orchestra, complete with harp, bells and organ—arguably the closest thing to a classical symphony that he would ever complete. In the first movement, the Cossack leader Taras Bulba beheads his own son Andrej, who has fallen in love with a girl from an enemy family: Music of ardent romance builds to an anguished climax. Another son, Ostap, is captured and tortured by the enemy Poles, and Taras Bulba goes undercover (the music seems to tiptoe) to witness the enemy dancing a strutting mazurka around his helpless son. A clarinet shrieks in pain. Finally, Taras Bulba wreaks furious revenge before he, too, is caught and killed. Janáček pauses for reflection before organ, tolling bells and blazing brass embody the warrior’s defiant final words: “Do you think that there is anything in the world that a Cossack fears?”