Born: 1854, Hukvaldy, Moravia
Died: 1928, Moravská Ostrava

"The laws of music exist in all living beings, in rhythm and in melody and by these rhythms we measure ourselves and the universe."

Although Janácek was born before late Romantic composers such as Mahler and Richard Strauss, most of his best-known and most distinctive music comes from the 1920s and sounds more like the contemporary work of younger musicians such as Kodály and Bartók. Earlier he wrote a prodigious amount of vocal and keyboard music centered on Moravian folk music, and he developed strong theories about the relationship of speech and melody. In everything, from string quartets to operas, Janácek was an intuitively dramatic composer of intense lyrical power.

Further listening:

Kát'a Kabanová (opera, 1920-21)
Elisabeth Söderström, Vienna State Opera,
Charles Mackerras (Decca)

String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters" (1928)
Talich String Quartet (Calliope)

10/06