Composer: Leoš Janáček
Performer: Natalia Sokolovskaya
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: OnClassical
Release: 2018
Size: 0.98 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
On The Overgrown Path, Jw VIII/17
01. No. 1, Our Evenings
02. No. 2, A Blown-Away Leaf
03. No. 3, Come Along With Us!
04. No. 4, The Madonna Of Frýdek
05. No. 5, They Chattered Like Swallows
06. No. 6, Words Failed Me
07. No. 7, Good Night!
08. No. 8, So Unutterably Anxious
09. No. 9, In Tears
10. No. 10, The Little Owl Continues Screeching
11. No. 11, Andante
12. No. 12, Allegretto
13. No. 13, Più Mosso
14. No. 14, Vivo
15. No. 15, Allegro
Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, Jw VIII/19
16. I. Foreboding
17. II. Death
In The Mists, Jw VIII/22
18. I. Andante
19. II. Molto Adagio
20. III. Andantino
21. IV. Presto
The Sonáta ‘pro klavír’ „I. X. 1905, Z ulice“, JW 8/19 (Piano Sonata “1 October 1905, From the Street” in E minor, JW 8/19, 1905) was inspired by the tragic and violent death of a protester during a demonstration calling for the construction of a new Czech university. Janacek drew inspiration from this deeply traumatising event, resulting in his only piano sonata. Although not entirely pianistic, it contains strong elements of drama and originality.
Janácek’s piano cycle ‘V mlhách’, JW 8/22 (In the Mists, 1912) contains elements of the intimate, personal and emotionally immediate music from the borders of eastern and western Europe, coming from the fiddles and cimbalom (hammered dulcimer) of Moravian folk music, as well as its use of melodic fragments, reiterated and altered in various ways. In the composer’s use of harmonic colour, however, there is more than a hint of Debussy-like impressionism, but the context is purely Czech.
The first five pieces of the two sets ‘Po zarostlém chodnícku’, JW 8/17 (‘On an Overgrown Path’, 1901–1908) were composed around 1900, for harmonium. The first set of ten was completed in 1908. The pieces, as Janácek wrote, “contain distant reminiscences. Those reminiscences are so dear to me that I do not think they will ever vanish.” Some of these memories are clearly happy, others extremely sad.
Natalia Sokolovskaya is a very refined and elegant young Russian pianist, winner of several international competitions and active as a concertist pianist and organizer.