Folklorist and Teacher

For most of his life, Leoš Janácek was known primarily as a folklorist and teacher and didn't achieve international recognition as a composer until he was into his sixties. He was a man of immense drive and determination and, alongside his passion for the folk music of his native Moravia, Janácek improved the standard of music-making and music education in Brno where he spent most of his life.
Donald Macleod introduces works from the years leading up to Janacek's first big success including a sample of the wealth of folk songs he collected, a ghostly orchestral ballad, a piano piece written at a time of personal and professional crisis, and part of the opera which finally put Janácek's career as a serious composer firmly on the map.