Leoš Janáček – Youth
Josef Bohuslav Foerster: Brass Quintet
Janáček Ensemble
In August 1923 Janáček was present at an enthralling performance by the excellent French ensemble Société moderne des instruments à vent at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Salzburg. It is, therefore, no surprise that when the ensemble came to Brno on April 10 1924, the composer made sure he was in attendance. The concert on April 10 1924 was organised by the Brno Conservatory and included Roussel’s Divertimento, Mozart and Rimsky-Korsakov’s piano quintets and Foerster’s Wind Quintet. Not long afterwards Janáček began work on his own wind sextet. It is, therefore, possible that his composition could have been inspired by Foerster’s Wind Quintet from 1909. This is an exceedingly upbeat piece. It dates to the period when Foerster moved to Vienna with his wife, the famous soprano Berta Lauterová. During their stay in Vienna the composer created several of what are perhaps his most important works, such as Symphony No. 4 “Easter Eve”. The imaginatively conceived four-movement Wind Quintet is an example of Foerster’s incredible skills in instrumentation as well as his essential lyricism.
Leoš Janáček did not write his wind quintet until 1924, when he was seventy years old. It was a year when he looked back on both his professional and private life, often reflecting on his youth and childhood – hence the title Youth. We can only surmise which part is dedicated to his childhood experiences, but in one instance the composer does directly inform us. Material from the third movement comes from Janáček’s composition The March of the Blue Birds. This musical vignette is related to the composer’s childhood at the Staré Brno Monastery foundation. It was there that the 12-year-old Leoš witnessed an incursion by Prussian soldiers into Staré Brno: “During the holidays of 1866 the Staré Brno Monastery Square was filled with grey and red Prussian soldiers. The high piccolos caterwauled above the roll of the tin drums. Fierce music. To this day it still throbs in my ears.” Although the composition had originally been written for students of the Prague Conservatory, the premiere was given at the Brno Conservatory on October 21 1924 by musicians from the Brno Opera. Today Youth is one of the most frequently played chamber pieces for wind instruments.
