Janacek, L :: Mladi [Youth]

Leos Janacek, almost seventy years old, characterised the wind sextet he had just finished as a kind of memory of youth in a letter to Kamila Stosslova. The suite Youth was written in the summer of 1924, prompted by the composer s need to take stock on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Janacek also heard the Parisian ensemble Societe moderne des instruments a vent several times in Salzburg and Brno, and so expanded the classic quintet scoring by the addition of a bass clarinet.

Janacek referred to an earlier part of his life in this work not only by quoting a theme from March of the Bluebird , but particularly through his general freshness of expression, astute humour and use of form which adhered to the classical style. The piece was enthusiastically received by both critics and the public and appeared in print as early as 1925 issued by the Prague publisher Hudebni matice.