Sinfonietta

“A nice little Sinfonietta with fanfares” was how Janáček described this vibrant orchestral masterpiece (1926). In fact, the Sinfonietta is a joyous, sweeping orchestral epic, opening and closing with one of the most magnificent fanfares ever composed, expressing Janáček’s love of his home city, Brno, in a series of impassioned, vividly coloured sound pictures. Originally, Janáček had been asked by the Prague-based National Gymnastics Festival to write a fanfare, and ideas were soon suggesting themselves. But before long they’d begun to grow into something even grander: a five-movement symphonic work for a large orchestra plus the nine trumpets, two bass trumpets and two tenor tubas needed for the thrilling opening fanfare. After that comes the “Andante” second movement, a grand, exuberant evocation of Brno Castle, a more pensive visit to the city’s ancient monastery (“Moderato”), and then to its bustling main street (“Allegretto”). Brno’s historic town hall inspired the finale (“Andante con moto”), a beautifully engineered crescendo leading to the point where the fanfare returns, now combined with the rest of the orchestra in thrilling affirmation. Some of the orchestral writing is ferociously hard, but for Janáček it was always the spirit that mattered. As he once told a dogmatic musical analyst, “Music isn’t about notes, it’s about life, blood and nature!” That could stand as a motto for his Sinfonietta.