Leoš Janáček Essentials

One of the greatest mavericks of Eastern European art music in the 19th and 20th centuries, Leoš Janáček developed his unprecedented compositional voice by building works around motifs tied to the rhythms of Czech folk music and speech. His two string quartets of the 1920s—characterized by obsessive call-and-response melodies and fierce bursts of dissonance—are an excellent introduction to his uncompromising voice, while his patriotic, fanfare-like Sinfonietta (1926) showcases his versatility, moving between lighthearted allusions to popular styles and weightier themes. However, his greatest legacy is in opera, including his enduring tragic favorite Jenůfa (1904) and the increasingly chromatic and experimental works that followed (Káťa Kabanová, The Makropulos Affair).