Barry Forshaw

How many of the aficionados of the rich and characterful music of Janáček were introduced to the composer by a single work? The glorious Sinfonietta, composed in 1927, belongs to the composer’s final period, and for quite some time, the piece – full of impact as it is  – was seldom performed. This was principally due to the prodigious number of wind instruments that the score required. In fact, the outer movements’ supplementary chorus of trumpets (along with the five specified for all the sections) further added to the expense of performance. The identity of the piece is quite unlike that of any other music, even that of Janáček, with undercurrents of a threnody set against its pulse-raising fortissimos. From the Boydell Press, we now have a fascinating study of the piece described as a ‘musical biography’ of the Sinfonietta, analysing its sources, its critical reception and various iterations on disc. And in a move as canny as one might expect from this enterprising publisher, Britain’s leading authority on Janáček, the much-esteemed musicologist Nigel Simeone, is responsible for this scholarly but utterly readable volume, in the company of Jiří Zahrádka, director of the Janáček Archive in Brno, who was responsible for critical editions of many of the composer’s works – including the equally arresting Tara Bulba. It goes without saying that this is a volume which should be on the shelves of anyone with the slightest interest in the composer, the music examined at granular level. But bursting off the pages is an enthusiasm for this matchless music that will send listeners afresh to the score, either on disc or (if they are lucky enough) in a concert performance.

JANÁČEK’S SINFONIETTA by Nigel Simeone and Jiří Zahrádka
Boydell Press