Leoš Janáček (1854 -1928)
Violin Sonata • Romance • Dumka • Allegro
Capriccio for Piano left-hand, Flute/Piccolo, Two Trumpets, Three Trombones and Tenor Tuba

Czech music in the course of the nineteenth century was left largely to three composers: Smetana (encouraged by Liszt), Dvořák (championed by Brahms), and Janáček (unknown to anyone). Janáček, a humble Moravian from Brno, began as a trail-blazing teacher and nature-loving folklorist. He ended by becoming one of the most creative and lastingly original operatic forces of the twentieth century. Discovered late (not until his sixties, with the 1916 Prague production of Jenůfa), his pioneering of "speech-melody", based on the rise and fall and rhythms of his native tongue, gave him the distinguishing musical soundprint of his lifework. "If speech-melody&qu