Leoš Janáček is one of the composers who brought fame to Czech music worldwide, and his Glagolitic Mass, Sinfonietta and mature operas are regularly performed on prominent stages around the globe. Yet the composer’s folk-based works have remained relatively little known, even though traditional songs pulsate in the very heart of his music, significantly forming his singular idiom, and serving as a source of inspiration without which Janáček’s oeuvre simply cannot be imagined.

Owing to the artist’s collecting passion, today we can enjoy numerous lovely songs which have been preserved in both music scores and period audio recordings. The collections Moravian and Hukvaldy Folk Poetry in Songs contain the most beautiful of them all. Janáček left the songs in their pure form, afforded to them by the landscape and the people living in it, merely – and with the sensitivity of a precious painting restorer – furnishing them with congenial piano accompaniments.

The landscape and the language of Janáček’s Hukvaldy and Moravia have also been imprinted in the very souls of the artists who have recorded this album, focusing on the purity of folk songs, reflecting simple directness and enchanting poetics.