There are, apart from the operas and string quartets, a number of chamber works that date from that last, very productive, decade of the Janáček’s life; here are two of them, the piano Concertino (1925) and the wind sextet, Mládí (1924).
Mládí means ‘youth’ and the work is the older Janáček’s reflection on his early years, including in the third movement the March of the Blue-Boys. Originally written for piccolo, bells and tambourine; the march evoked, for the composer, memories of his days as a choirboy in the Old Monastery in Brno. Like much late Janáček, the sextet makes serious demands on the players; it’s scored for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn and bassoon.
The Concertino is something of a rarity, since there aren’t many concerto style works in Janáček’s output. It’s a chamber concerto for piano accompanied by a mixed ensemble of horn, clarinet, two violins, viola and bassoon. It also, according to the composer, features a grumpy hedgehog, a fidgety squirrel, an owl and other night creatures and a rather argumentative fairy story…
Moderato (x 2!)
00:05:25 Più mosso
00:09:12 Con moto
00:12:57 Allegro
0:10 – 1. Allegro
3:49 – 2. Andante sostenuto
8:42 – 3. Vivace
12:28 – 4. Allegro animato
On a much more serious note, the famous Sinfonietta (1926) was dedicated to the Czech army, but there is a work, with a similar dedication, that predates it (written 1915-18 during the the First World War). Based on a story by Gogol, Janáček described the three movement tone-poem Taras Bulba as a rhapsody, and – for the composer – it anticipates the soon to be achieved Czech independence.
00:03 Smrt Andrijova (Death of Andrei)
08:23 Smrt Ostapova (Death of Ostap)
13:54 3. Proroctví a smrt Tarase Bulby
(Prophecy and Death of Taras Bulba)
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