Janáček Brno

Sinfonietta

Leoš Janáček

The Sinfonietta is Leoš Janáček’s last orchestral work, finished in 1926. It was first performed that year on 26 June with Václav Talich conducting the Czech Philharmonic at Prague’s Municipal House as part of the Eighth All-Sokol Festival in Prague. The original title had been Military Sinfonietta, and the premiere was given under the title Sokol Festival Sinfonietta. Janáček called the composition a reminiscence of the experiences of the First World War and of what he felt when Czechoslovakia was established as a free country, as he formulated his thoughts in a recollection of his experiences in Brno in a short essay he wrote for the issue of the newspaper Lidové noviny that appeared on 24 December 1927: “And all at once I saw the city in a miraculous transformation. [...] The magical glow of freedom and rebirth loomed over the city on 28 October 1918! I saw myself in the city, and I belonged to it. And the blaring of victorious trumpets, the holy peacefulness of the Queen’s monastery at Úvoz, the nocturnal shadows and breath of the green hill, and the vision of the certain growth and greatness of the town, of my city Brno, gave rise within me to the Sinfonietta.” The composition was originally intended to be played outdoors, but it gradually grew into a work for full symphony orchestra. The composer later abandoned the programmatic titles of individual movements (Fanfares, The Castle, The Queen’s Monastery, The Street, and The Town Hall). The work is dedicated to the British author and arts patron Rose Newmarch, who made the arrangements for Janáček’s musical tour of England in 1926.