Sinfonietta: III. Moderato (The Queen's Monastery, Brno)

Janacek, who wrote this in 1926, said the Sinfonietta was intended to express “contemporary free man, his spiritual beauty and joy, his strength, courage and determination to fight for victory.” That’s a pretty tall order. But Janacek was nothing if not full of chutzpah and ambition. And besides, I reckon he succeeded! What I love about his music — and what makes it feel still so modern and so approachable — is the raw, earthy quality of its sound world: It is completely uncompromising and individual. You don’t need to be a conservatory-trained musician to fall under his spell. He was a man of the soil and you can tell his love for his Moravian homeland in every bar of music he wrote.
-- John Eliot Gardiner, conductor