Janáček Recital CD is a classical music CD providing a unique insight into the work of one of the most important and innovative composer of the 20th century. Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) was described by
the Austrian composer Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) as the ultimate creator of musical expression. It is because through his exceptional sensitivity, Janáček strived hard to bring music as close to life as possible: trying to capture moments, psychological states and their associated emotions; for him, if notes were not steeped in life, blood and nature, they meant next to nothing. This CD focuses on Janáček’s main piano output that was written during a single decade – from 1901 until 1912. This decade signifies the most complicated and difficult time in Janáček’s life both professionally and personally and it is here that Janáček wrote his greatest piano compositions, using the piano as a medium for his most personal thoughts, feelings and confessions.
M. Karlíček, 2013
About this CD
Karlíček’s performance fully conveys the quintessence of Janáček’s music and the more one listens, the tastier it becomes and the more sympathy it stirs. In both movements of the Sonata, he admirably portrays the sorrow of an oppressed nation, its resignation and its anger by fortissimos and accelerandos. It gets even further in the cycle "In the Mists". The recording excels in dynamism and expressive pacing, it carries passion moving up and down with tremolos and arpeggios and there, surrounded by turmoil, one witnesses the master’s philosophical heights. Embossed melodies in each of the "On an Overgrown Path" pieces leave the scent of the earthiness of Moravia, flowers blooming in the fields, nostalgia and even of feelings of Janáček’s daughter Olga dying way too young; all that comes through in Karlíček’s poetic performance.
H.Sekine, Czech Music Scholar, 2013
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928):
Sonáta 1.X.1905 “Z ulice”/ Piano Sonata 1st October 1905 “From the Street” JW 8/19 (1905)
- Předtucha/ Foreboding
- Smrt/ Death
Po zarostlém chodníčku/ 1. Řada/ On an Overgrown Path/ 1st Series JW 8/17 (1901-1911)
- Naše večery/ Our evenings
- Lístek odvanutý/ A blown-away leaf
- Pojďte s nami/ Come with Us!
- Frýdecká Panna Maria/ The Madonna of Frýdek
- Štěbetaly jak laštovičky/ They chattered like swallows
- Nelze domluvit!/ Words fail!
- Dobrou noc!/ Good night!
- Tak nezkonale úzko/ Unutterable anguish
- V pláči/ In tears
- Sýček neodletěl!/ The barn owl has not flown away!
Po zarostlém chodníčku/ 2. Řada/ On an Overgrown Path/ 2nd Series JW 8/17 (1901-1911)
- Andante
- Allegretto
- Vivo
- Piú mosso
- Allegro
V mlhách/ In the Mists JW 8/22 (1912)
- Andante
- Molto adagio
- Andantino
- Presto
Vzpomínka/ Recollection JW 8/32 (1928)
Narodil se Kristus Pán (z Intimních skic)/ Christ the Lord is born (from Intimate Sketches) JW 8/20 (1909)
