Leos Janacek

Biografi från Wikipedia

Leo? Janá?ek was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style.

Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín DvoÅ?ák. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jen?fa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jen?fa at Prague in 1916 gave Janá?ek access to the world's great opera stages. Janá?ek's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Ká?a Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works. Along with Antonín DvoÅ?ák and BedÅ?ich Smetana, he is considered one of the most important Czech composers.