Janáček's Sinfonietta had its world premiere on 26 June 1926, and this book coincides with its hundredth birthday. Given that the Sinfonietta is Janáček's most famous and successful orchestral work, it's perhaps surpris¬ing that this is the first book entirely devoted to it – particularly as its five movements represent such a thrilling microcosm of the composer's late musical style – but its centenary provided an ideal opportunity.

After informal discussions at the Brno Janáček Festival in November 2024, we decided to work together on a volume that would place the Sinfonietta in the context of Janáček's other compositions (Prologue), evaluate its inspiration, sources and first publication (Chapter 1 and its supplement listing sources), document its early performance history and reception (Chapters 2 and 3) and describe its subsequent success on records and CDs (Chapter 4). We were very fortunate that Jakub Hrůša was happy to share his insights on conducting the work, as well as considering the interpretations of some of his distinguished predecessors (Chapter 5). The structure and instrumentation of the Sinfonietta are both idiosyncratic and highly original, and they are examined in detail in the musical commentary (Chapter 6). An appendix discusses scores annotated by three conductors who performed the work during Janáček's lifetime (two of them in the composer's presence): František Neumann, Otto Klemperer and Henry Wood. Finally, the book includes a comprehensive discography.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help and support of friends, colleagues and institutions.

First and foremost, our warmest thanks go to Jakub Hrůša. He has taken an enthusiastic interest in this project from the start, was extremely gen¬erous with his time for the ‘conductor's perspective’ (Chapter 5), and has kindly written the Foreword