Janácek, Leos - Piano Works - Couvert, Hélène (piano)
On Along an overgrown path, Janácek acknowledged the autobiographical dimension of the work: the cycle is a walk 'along an overgrown path', and the pieces are 'distant memories' which are dear to him, containing 'more sufferings than can be uttered'. A variety of sources enables us to reconstruct the semantic field associated with the definitive titles : Our evenings, the leaf, Come with us, The Madona of Frydek, Words fails, Good Night, Unutterable anguish, In tears, The barn own has not flown away, These modest pieces are far from easy to perform, in particular because of their rhythmic irregularities, their unusual articulations, their pronounced contrasts, the tightly packed rhythmic layers in the medium register of the piano, and finally that organic roaming of the discourse which the interpreter must be capable of 'constructing' in his or her playing. The cycle "In the mists" is an excursion into the unknown - experimental music of great modernity. Its language is even more unsettling than that of Along an Overgrown Path. The Piano Sonata is among the works Janácek wished to destroy in an excess of self-criticism. He dedicated it 'To the memory of a workman killed during the demonstrations in favour of the University of Brno', and added an epigraph specifying the circumstances. The sonata transcends the specific event that brought it into being. Janácek made no comment on the content of the work, which preserves the secret of its inspiration, perhaps more intimate in nature.