Andrys Basten writes of Jan Dismas Zelenka:

>Bach was said to admire him and studied his compositions.  Zelenka is
>delightfully quirky.

That's a good description of Zelenka's style.  Although he can be as smooth
and conventional as the next baroque composer, his individuality comes from
his harmonic or other shifts during a composition.  The best work of his I
ever heard was a Requiem I bought over 10 years ago on the Claves label;
that recording is probably out of print.

Personally, I place Zelenka very high on the baroque composer scale with
only Handel and Bach at a higher level.

Don Satz
[log in to unmask]