The essential adjunct to Christine Labroche's Janacek festival is "Leos
Janacek", Jaroslav Vogel's very readable biography.  Unfortunately, it's
out of print, and I found that Amazon has used copies of it "from $154",
which works out to a lot of money per page: better to investigate your
library's holdings.  Mine has it.

I also recently bought the reissue on Testament of Charles Mackerras's
first version of Janaceks' Sinfonietta, originally on a Pye LP with some
opera preludes.  The CD has all this and some other bits of Bartok,
Dvorak, Enescu and Brahms you already have in other versions, but no
matter.  The Sinfonietta sounds fabulous, especially the overwhelming
ending.  For my money, Mackerras's remake for Decca is more restrained.
The earlier is a young conductor's risk-taking performance.  And speaking
of overwhelming endings, I notice Jascha Horenstein's version of Mahler's
8th on BBC Legends is on offer at Berkshire.  Every home should have
one!

Richard Pennycuick