Leos Janacek.
 

I think he's way under appreciated, but that may be because I just love his work.

For me he's really interesting because he really symbolises the crossover between centuries - he's rooted in the past but works like Sinfonieta or Taras Bulba at times feel almost like film scores, or at least a precursor.

I agree that he is under appreciated. Especially when compared to other Czech composers. He is at least as good as Dvorak or Smetana, maybe better.

He was inspired by Czech folk music to an gret extent, I believe - do you think this lost him some credibility? Would the intelligensia have been predjudiced about that?

No, I don't think so. Bartok made his career off of Hungarian folk music, and he's one of the most respected 20th century composers. Come to think of it, it's hard to think of a composer that wasn't inspired at least a little by folk music. I guess later in the 20th century - after WWII, you see less and less of that.

But anyway, I think Janacek has more credibilty than you give him credit for. The average Joe on the street has probably not heard of him, but he isn't thought of as a hack in the academic community or anything.

Grove's Online says:

"His reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first made as an instrumental composer, with a small number of chamber and orchestral pieces written between his operas, which he considered his main work.The balance has now been largely redressed and he is regarded as one of the most substantial, original and immediately appealing opera composers of the 20th century."

Of course, I only know him from his string quartet, piano, and orchestral music....He would probably not like it that I've never heard his operas...

This perhaps should have been your thread!

I was thinking, Czech folk music probably means gypsy music to some extent, mabe it was frowned upon to respect traditions of that kind.

I'm glad he's got more respect than I thought - my impressions are no doubt formed by me rarely mereting people who've heard of him.


Thanks for that.