Béla Bartók: The Wooden Prince, Op. 13, Sz. 60, BB 74 / Suite from the Ballet
Leoš Janáček: Sinfonietta, JW VI/18
Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka / burlesque scenes in four tableaux
Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), a generation younger Béla Bartók (1881–1945), and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) form a distinguished trio of 20th-century composers, each of whom engaged deeply with folk music. Each in his own way, but all three were profoundly influenced by it in their musical thinking. Janáček and Bartók studied folk song not only creatively but also scientifically, undertaking field research. For Janáček, folk music was a “truth of life” shaping his melodic language, while for Bartók it became the foundation of his approach to modality and rhythm. Stravinsky, on the other hand, was fascinated by folk ritual, drawing on folk sources selectively and only when needed, above all for texts and melodic ideas. In all cases, however, each composer used this material in a highly personal and inventive way.
The tale of a proud, vain princess and a wooden prince occupied Béla Bartók between 1914 and 1916. Following his opera Bluebeard’s Castle, it represented a further exploration of the differences between man and woman, this time in the form of a ballet. Its music is symphonic in character and a true masterpiece of orchestration. The Wooden Prince abounds in impressionistic sonorities, folk-inspired melody, vigorous rhythms, and elements of Romanian and Hungarian traditions. The 1917 premiere won international acclaim, and in 1931 Bartók created the suite from the ballet.
Janáček’s Sinfonietta likewise carries echoes of folk melody. It is a work filled with the energy and optimism of the early years of the newly founded Czechoslovakia, and it was closely linked with the Sokol movement. At the beginning of 1926 Janáček was asked by the newspaper Lidové noviny to write “a few notes” as a greeting for the forthcoming 8th All-Sokol Rally in Prague. He began with fanfares in March 1926, but they grew into a full-scale symphonic composition, which he first called the Military Sinfonietta because of its use of military brass. It was offered to the organisers and included in the programme of the youth Sokol concert on 26 June 1926, performed by the Czech Philharmonic under Václav Talich and broadcast on radio. Alongside the Philharmonic played members of the Prague garrison band, and the success was considerable. The first printed edition, published by Universal Edition in 1927, bore simply the title Sinfonietta, under which this celebrated symphonic masterpiece of the 20th century has been known ever since.
The ballet Petrushka stands among Igor Stravinsky’s greatest achievements. Written in 1910–1911, shortly after The Firebird, it was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes in Paris. The story of a fairground puppet who comes to life and suffers the pangs of unrequited love is told with a brilliance that, as in so many of Stravinsky’s works, was ahead of its time and opened new paths for music. In this ballet score he employed folk melody, modern harmony, bitonality, and rhythmic innovation. Petrushka also embodies the ferment of Parisian artistic life at that time, when many works—not only musical—introduced something new and innovative, laying the foundations for 20th-century art.
Text: Jiří Zahrádka
