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My Life with Janáček: the memoirs of Zdenka Janáčková
edited and translated by John Tyrrell
Faber and Faber, London, 1998
xviii, 278pp
ISBN 0-571-17540-6

Zdenka Janáčková's intimate and revealing portrait of her husband, the great composer Leoš Janáček, was dictated to her secretary in 1933-5, a few years before her death. In it she tells the tale of her extraordinary life with Janáček, from her years as young piano pupil (when the composer was 23) to his sudden death at the age of 74. Her story provides a first-hand account of Janáček's day-to-day life. Among many striking passages are her harrowing description of the long illness and painful death of their daughter Olga and a forthright account Janáček's increasing infatuation during his later years with his 'muse' Kamila Stösslová and of the events surrounding his death. It is a moving and startlingly frank document, written unashamedly to set the record straight, and it paints a fascinating picture of the changing times during which the composer lived.