The London Wind Quintet:
Robert Murchie (flute)
Alec Whittaker (oboe)
Frederick Thurston (clarinet)
Edward Wilson (bassoon)
Edmund Chapman (horn)
with Walter Lear (bass clarinet) and Berkeley Mason (pianoforte)
'Mládí', the name of Janáček’s sextet for six wind instruments to be played this evening, means 'Youth', and nothing could be more typical of its composer. He was seventy when it was written, yet it breathes the very spirit of youth's exuberance and vigour. Even two years after that he said: ' I feel as though quite unexpected new worlds were opening within me', and to the end of his days he ranked himself along with the most ardent spirits of the modern movement.