Janáček’s symphonic poem Danube dates from the time of the first performances of his opera Katya Kabanova. Whereas his predecessor Smetana had depicted the river Vltava literally in his cycle of symphonic poems My Country, Janáček decided to portray the river Danube as a woman with passions and instincts in four richly turbulent movements. The incidental music to Schluck und Jau successfully evokes the unreal atmosphere of Hauptmann’s comedy. Like many of his contemporaries, Janáček was interested in folk-music, and the five Moravian Dances are derived from the music of his own homeland, Moravia. The Suite, Opus 3, makes use of music from his opera The Beginning of a Romance. The third movement is an expansion of one of Janáček’s Lachian Dances, and the whole is suffused with the music of Moravia.