It is often that when we think of the great composers, we think of astonishing wunderkinds such as Mozart and Mendelssohn, or composers of vast quantities of oeuvre, such as Bach or Haydn. It is in fact rare to come across a composer such as Leoš Janáček, whose first true compositional success came in 1904 with the premiere of his opera Jenůfa, when the composer was already fifty years old. However, after his late success, his meteoric rise to international recognition and fame led to an outpouring of operas, chamber music and symphonic music until his death in 1928, and he remains a uniquely monolithic presence in Czech musical culture.

Born to schoolteachers in Moravia, now modern era Czech Republic, Janáček’s obvious musical talent led him predominantly to the collection of musical folklore native to his home country. Influenced by the nationalistic style of composers such as Antonín Dvořák and Tchaikovsky whom he admired, Janáček developed his own idiosyncratic style steeped in the sounds, cadences and phonemes of the Czech language which he termed “nápěvky mluvy,” or speech-melodies, in an attempt to convey a music rooted in realism. This is characterized by short, pithy musical subjects which develop through rapid and seemingly jarring juxtaposition, quickly flitting between very different moods. In this way, seemingly unimportant motifs can become focal points of climaxes that appear as if in sudden epiphany, before receding into harmonically ambiguous textures. It is hard to imagine a more apt word to describe his music other than eccentric, which expresses both the peculiarities of his musical language and his literary subjects.

The Mládí or “Youth” sextet for woodwind quintet plus bass clarinet is a mature work that comes from 1924, inspired by the composer’s visit in 1923 to the International Society of Contemporary music in Salzburg, where he heard Albert Roussel’s Divertimento for piano and winds. Cast in four contrasting movements, the suite is a deeply nostalgic exploration of the composer's younger life as a chorister of the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno, expressing everything from the joys of childhood to the loneliness he experienced after the death of his father. An example of Janáček’s speech-melody can be found in the opening oboe theme of the first movement, a recurring theme of the work, which supposedly sets the phrase 'Mládí, zlaté mládí!' ('Youth, golden youth!'). Janáček also includes a recalled melody in the third movement from the military bands which would play in Brno, recycled from an earlier work titled “March of the Blue Boys.” An exuberant work of particularly brilliant woodwind writing, the Mládí sextet’s ebullience belies a composer already well into his seventies.

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—Notes by Nick Davies

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GUEST ARTIST

Christopher Kirkpatrick is Professor of Clarinet at the University of Montana and has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
 

He is principal clarinet of the Missoula Symphony and Big Sky Festival Orchestra and has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Lansing Symphony, West Michigan Symphony, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Symphony.
 

Christopher has performed at numerous conferences including the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest, the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference, the International Double Reed Society Conference, International Horn Symposium, the Brandon University Clarinet Festival, World Bass Clarinet Congress, and the Montana/Idaho Clarinet Festival. During the summers he is on the faculty of the International Music Camp. 
 

An avid enthusiast of new music, recent commissions include works by Christopher Stark, Emilie LeBel, James Stephenson, Evan Chambers and David Biedenbender.  He is proud to be a Buffet Crampon Artist and Silverstein Artist. He holds degrees from Michigan State University (DMA), the University of New Mexico (MM) and the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga (BM). His teachers have included Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Keith Lemmons, Steve Cohen, Ted Gurch, Nikolasa Tejero, and Peter Temko. 
 

For more information please visit: christopherkirkpatrickclarinet.com