If one were to base an opinion on his best-known works, the Czechoslovakian composer Leos Janácek would be considered a late bloomer. His first success, the opera Jenufa, was completed in 1891 and not performed until he was nearly 40. All of his other ``standard'' repertoire came after he turned 60: the operas Katya Kabanova (1921), The Cunning Little Vixen (1923), The Makropoulos Case (1925), and From the House of the Dead (1928); the ``Glagolitic'' Mass (1926); and the two orchestral suites Taras Bulba (1918) and Sinfonietta (1926).
Yet a closer examination reveals the story of a man who devoted his life to music and composition. Born into a family of amateur musicians, Janácek began his studies at the age of ten, when he joined a monastery choir. At 19 he was appointed choirmaster at a cathedral in Brno, but he was dissatisfied with his technique and soon traveled to Prague, Leipzig, and Vienna in search of further education before eventually returning to Brno to teach.
It was while he was in Leipzig that Janácek wrote his Idylle for strings. Like the early works of many composers, the Idylle exhibits a mix of styles, sometimes imitating earlier compositional periods, sometimes showing the influence of Dvorák (whom the younger man revered), and occasionally providing glimpses of the distinct voice that would eventually make Janácek famous.
© 1999, Geoff Kuenning
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