JANÁCEK: SOLO

Recorded in Henry Wood Hall, London from 13-15 December 2018 PIANO Producer and Editor Tim Oldham Recording Engineer Mike Hatch Cover Image and Artwork Design Marshall Light Studio

Ⓟ 2020 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd © 2020 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. THOMAS Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middlesex, UB6 7LQ, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 | [email protected] | www.signumrecords.com ADÈS LEOS JANÁCEK (1854–1928) SOLO PIANO

Po zarostlém chodníčku (On an Overgrown Path) From The Street 1. X. 1905, ‘Piano Sonata’

Series I 15 Předtucha (Foreboding) 5.52 1 Naše večery (Our Evenings) 3.09 16 Smrt (Death) 7.21 2 Lístek odvanutý (A Blown-Away Leaf) 2.20 V mlhách (In the Mists) 3 Pojďte s námi! (Come with Us!) 1.06 Frýdecká panna Maria (The Madonna of Frydek) 3.35 4 17 Andante 3.37 Štěbetaly jak laštovičky (They Chattered like Swallows) 1.44 5 18 Molto adagio 4.21 Nelze domluvit! (Words Fail!) 1.55 6 19 Andantino 2.02 Dobrou noc! (Good Night!) 2.56 7 20 Presto 4.16 8 Tak neskonale úzko (Unutterable Anguish) 2.29 9 V pláči (In Tears) 2.12 Total Timings 66.50 10 Sýček neodletěl! (The Barn Owl has not Flown Away!) 3.20

Series II 11 Andante 3.23 THOMAS ADÈS 12 Allegretto (Presto) 2.31 PIANO 13 Più mosso 2.14 14 Allegro 6.24 www.signumrecords.com JANÁCEK: INTRODUCTION PIANO WORKS

“Nothing but pranks and puns”? There’s clearly more to this Nearly all of the music for solo piano infinitely multifaceted music than Janáček’s dismissive description written by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) dates from before the First World in a letter to Max Brod; but it is true that we find phrases, notes, War and thus belongs to the period whole sections that repeat, or recur with tiny but vital changes, like before the composer’s remarkable memories turned over and viewed in the lights of different eras. late creative surge, which was It is telling that the earliest piece on this record is an “In Memoriam”, triggered by the hugely successful and the latest is “Remembrance”. For this is music which obsessively 1916 production in Prague of his seeks to recreate, to remember the past: it creates a memory of third opera, Jenůfa (1894–1903; a memory of a memory, gradually building, with each reiteration, rev. 1907–8), and facilitated by whether exact or angled slightly differently, every revisiting of a his retirement from his teaching position at the Brno Organ School. melody or a tonality, the outline of a route which has been walked Nevertheless, all three of Janáček’s down before – an overgrown path – leading back to the real place, major solo piano works – On an musical voices of early twentieth- the actual event, the hooting owl, the traces of a face, the vanished Overgrown Path (1900–1911), From century music. human voices which miraculously sound once again in this intensely the Street 1 October 1905 (1905-6) nostalgic music. and In the Mists (1912–13) – contain The genesis of On an Overgrown music that is both profoundly Path was somewhat convoluted. Thomas Adès individual and also integral to There are fifteen pieces divided into the now widespread view of the two series in modern editions. Series I composer as one the most original comprises ten piano ‘miniatures’ with individual titles (first published published as no. 4 of Series II narrative with a double trajectory that the ‘Good Night’ of no. 7 was all together in December 1911), and (not recorded on this disc) is embracing what Janáček described a metaphor for Olga’s death, also the posthumously published Series actually unfinished: its manuscript as ‘distant reminiscences’ of both fleshing out the reasons for the tears II (1942) contains five more pieces comprises a sketchy initial ink draft his childhood in rural north-eastern of no. 9: ‘The premonition of certain without individual titles that were with incomplete pencil revisions. The Moravia and the more recent death death. During the hot summer nights not actually composed as a set. In only piece from Series II published in in 1903 of his beloved daughter that angelic being lay in such mortal 1900, Janáček initially wrote seven the composer’s lifetime was the first Olga. Janáček’s biographer, John anguish’. He continues: ‘In the last short pieces for harmonium, five of one, which appeared without a title Tyrrell, posits a gradual progression number the ominous motif the barn which (now nos. 1, 2, 4, 7 and 10 and billed as no. 1 of a new Series into grief and anguish across owl is heard’. The descending-third of Series I) were published as part of On an Overgrown Path in the Series I, although there is actually motif to which the composer refers of a series of works for harmonium literary supplement of the Brno daily a clear overlying arrangement of actually more resembles the call of entitled Slavonic Melodies in 1901 newspaper Lidové noviny on two groups of five mainly devoted a tawny owl than that of a barn owl, (nos. 1, 2 and 10) and 1902 (nos. 4 30 September 1911. respectively to the composer’s but the eerie sense of impending and 7). The other two pieces (later childhood and to Olga’s death. The catastrophe created in this Although Janáček had arrived at the published as nos. 3 and 5 of Series titles of the first group of five allude remarkable piece aligns precisely collective title for On an Overgrown II) seem to have been put aside to episodes such as evenings by with the barn owl’s folkloric status Path by 1901, the individual titles because they were less obviously the fireside (no. 1), children’s games as a harbinger of doom. for the ‘miniatures’ in Series I were suitable for harmonium. In mid-1908, (no. 3) and an annual religious devised and revised gradually in An obvious influence on Series I after a gap of six years, Janáček procession near the village where the period 1908-11, some of them of On an Overgrown Path is wrote nos. 3, 6 and 9 of Series I, also Janáček lived as a child (no. 4). Three undergoing radical change: no. 2, for Mussorgsky: several commentators refashioning the whole collection as of the titles in the second group of example, was first ‘A Declaration of have noted allusions to the a piano work. By 1911, nos. 5 and five allude specifically to anguished Love’ then ‘A Love Song’ before the ‘Promenade’ from Pictures at an 8 of Series I had been added, and emotions (nos. 6, 8 and 9) and composer settled on the enigmatic Exhibition in ‘Our Evenings’ (no. 1) what are now nos. 1 and 2 of Series Janáček revealed in a 1908 letter to ‘A Blown-Away Leaf’. What eventually and to ‘Baba Yaga’ from the same II had been composed. The piece his friend the critic Jan Branberger emerged was an over-arching work in ‘The Barn Owl has not Flown Away’ (no. 10). Series I also secondary; the sound world of Series I owes much to Schumann’s Scenes of On an Overgrown Path stands out of Childhood in terms of overall as a highly original and haunting conception and connections expression of grief and loss. between individual pieces: The looser assemblage of pieces that for example, there are clear form Series II of On an Overgrown programmatic, thematic and textural Path contains music that is, if lacking parallels between ‘Our Evenings’ and an extra-musical narrative, no less Schumann’s ‘At the Fireside’ (no. 8 compelling. The two later pieces of Scenes of Childhood), between (nos. 1 and 2 in the published ‘Come with Us!’ and ‘Blindman’s Buff’ ordering) incorporate a striking (no. 3), and between ‘Unutterable range of expression within their Anguish’ and ‘Almost too Serious’ deceptively slender ABA frames (no. 10). Perhaps the two most and exhibit an intense gestural intimately connected pieces are concentration that foreshadows ‘In Tears’ and ‘Child Falling Asleep’ In the Mists. The pair of pieces (no. 12), which share a musical fabric dating from 1900-1 (nos. 3 and 5) – constructed from short, repeated bizarrely dismissed by Tyrrell as not circular figures deployed in imitation sounding ‘remotely like Janáček’ and an ABA form whose middle – are notable for their ingenious section allegorises progression into fusion of the piano miniature with a different realm: serene slumber in key components of grander sonata- Schumann’s piece, death in Janáček’s. form processes. Ultimately, though, such threads of dialogue with existing repertoire are During the six-year break in the composition of On an Overgrown away the music from the pianist, minor like the other two) might that prove to be seismic in their Path, Janáček wrote the extraordinary Ludmila Tučková, tore out this third have followed the rhetorically implications, and by subtle modal 1. X. 1905 (From the Street 1 October movement and burnt it in the stove. definitive final bars of ‘Death’. modifications and refinements 1905), usually classified as a Piano The unfortunate Tučková was thus Both surviving movements achieve of texture. Sonata but apparently never named forced to perform only the remaining maximum expressive power from The last of Janáček’s major piano as such by the composer. The torso of two movements. Later the minimum of means – indeed, works, the four-movement cycle work was inspired by the death of that year after a further informal the persistent first-beat semiquaver In the Mists, dates from a time when a 20-year-old joiner’s apprentice, performance of the remaining two rests in ‘Death’ function as a quasi- the composer was at a low ebb, František Pavlík, as the result of the movements in Prague the composer motif in their own right and, as psychologically because of his police and army breaking up a rally allegedly threw the manuscript into Thomas Adès persuasively argues, unsuccessful attempts to have his supporting the Czech population of the river Vltava. Tučková hung on at the moment where the opening operas performed, and physically Brno’s request for the setting up of to her copy, however, and in 1924 music returns the semiquaver rest due to rheumatism and other a Czech University in this bilingual as part of the celebrations for his is elevated ‘to the status of a sort of ailments. The immediate catalyst city. It was composed between 2 seventieth birthday Janáček relented secondary tonic’. Both movements for the cycle may well have been October 1905 and 27 January 1906 and sanctioned publication of the also engage with, and transform, a performance in January 1928 at (the date of the premiere). Originally, two movements, the second of which late-nineteenth-century sonata-form the Brno Organ School of Debussy’s there were three movements now had the title ‘Death’. procedures in a wholly original way. ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ (first published entitled ‘Foreboding’, ‘Elegy’ and In ‘Foreboding’, for example, what A century on from these events, in 1905); certainly, In the Mists ‘Funeral March’. During a rehearsal were by 1900 commonplace sonata- it seems unimaginable that this bears faint traces of contact with for the first performance, Janáček form ‘deformations’ such as the remarkable work came close to Debussy’s piano style. Janáček was expressed dissatisfaction with the recapitulation of the opening theme disappearing from the repertoire also buoyed by a favourable critical third movement, and the following over a dominant pedal and a non- altogether, even if it is also difficult response to the publication in day during the final run-through, tonic return of the second theme to visualise how a third equally December 1911 of Series I of On in what now seems an inexplicable are breathtakingly defamiliarised by uncompromising and gloomy an Overgrown Path. The first version act of self-criticism, he snatched small enharmonic reinterpretations movement (presumably in E flat of In the Mists (initially entitled Mhy [Mists]) was completed by contrasting groups of material, 21 April 1912, and it was revised although the overlying structure probably in early 1913. The premiere of each movement is different and publication of the first edition from that of the others and none was in late 1913. Ten years later conforms to an established pattern. a new edition was commissioned The work is unquestionably "THE GREATNESS OF IN THE MISTS in honour of Janáček’s seventieth Janáček’s masterpiece in terms of birthday. The pianist and composer its achievement of an astonishing LIES IN ITS VERY CLAUSTROPHOBIA, Václav Štěpán, who had given expressive power through maximum AND AUSTERITY OF MEANS AFFECTING what seems to have been the first economy of materials. As Thomas Prague performance of the work in Adès puts it, ‘The greatness of In the EVERY ASPECT OF THE MUSIC. December 1922, was entrusted with Mists lies in its very claustrophobia, revising the score. Unfortunately, and austerity of means affecting THE SOLO PIANO BECOMES A NARROW he exceeded his brief of correcting every aspect of the music. The solo errors, adding heavy-handed dynamic piano becomes a narrow space with SPACE WITH FOUR SOLID WALLS." markings and rewriting the finale’s four solid walls’. climax with some virtuoso figuration Paul Wingfield that is entirely out of keeping with the understated character of the work. (The original 1913 versions of all the THOMAS ADÈS relevant passages are performed on this disc.) All four movements of In the Mists involve the alternation and incremental modification of two THOMAS ADÈS at the Royal Opera House and music at the Reduta Theatre in the Metropolitan Opera in New Brno, Janacek’s home town, he was York, all under the baton of the awarded the Leoš Janáček prize. Thomas Adès was born in London composer. In 1999 Adès started a His many awards including the in 1971. He studied the piano with 10-year relationship with Aldeburgh Grawemeyer Award for Asyla Paul Berkowitz at the Guildhall Festival as artistic director. In 2016 (1999); Royal Philharmonic Society School, winning the Lutine Prize he became an Artistic Partner of large-scale composition awards for for piano, before continuing his the Boston Symphony Orchestra Asyla, The Tempest and Tevot. His studies at King’s and St John’s and has conducted the orchestra CD recording of The Tempest (EMI) Colleges, Cambridge. in Boston, at Carnegie Hall in won the Contemporary category New York and at Tanglewood. © Brian Voce His early compositions include of the 2010 Gramophone Awards; He coaches piano and chamber his DVD of the production from the Living Toys (London Sinfonietta), music annually at the International Zürich Opera, and The Tempest Arcadiana (the Endellion Quartet) Metropolitan Opera was awarded Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove. at the Metropolitan Opera and the Diapason d’Or de l’année (2013), and his first operaPowder Her Face Vienna State Opera. (1995), which has been performed As a conductor, Thomas appears Best Opera recording (2014 Grammy many times around the world. regularly with the Los Angeles, Dr Adès has given solo piano Awards) and Music DVD Recording Orchestral commissions include San Francisco and London recitals at Carnegie Hall, New York of the Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Asyla and America: A Prophecy, the Philharmonic orchestras, the and the Wigmore Hall and the Awards); and The Exterminating tone poem Tevot and concertos Boston, London and City of Barbican in London, and appeared Angel won the World Premiere of for violin and piano. His Opera The Birmingham Symphony orchestras, as a soloist with the New York the Year at the International Opera Tempest received its premiere at the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Philharmonic. He has performed Awards (2017). In 2015 he was the Royal Opera House in 2004 Gewandhaus and the Czech Schubert’s Winterreise extensively awarded the prestigious Léonie and in 2016 The Exterminating Philharmonic. In opera, in addition throughout Europe with Ian Sonning Music Prize in Copenhagen Angel premiered at the Salzburg to The Exterminating Angel, he has Bostridge and in 2018 recorded and in Spring 2020 the Toru Festival followed by performances conducted The Rake’s Progress at it at the Wigmore Hall. In 2018, Takemitsu composition award the Royal Opera House and the following a recital of Janacek’s at Tokyo Opera City. Key: CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS No text area Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN MAGENTA Customer YELLOW Bleed Catalogue No. BLACK Trim Job Title Fold

SIGCD600 JANÁCEK: THOMAS SOLO PIANO ADÈS

Po zarostlém chodníčku (On an Overgrown Path) JANÁCEK: SOLO PIANO

1–10 Series I 24.46

THOMAS ADÈS 11–14 Series II 14.32 117.8 From The Street 1. X. 1905, ‘Piano Sonata’

15–16 13.13

V mlhách (In the Mists) THOMAS ADÈS

17–20 14.16 JANÁCEK: SOLO PIANO Total Timings 66.50

Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middlesex, UB6 7LQ, United Kingdom LC15723 SIGCD600 www.signumrecords.com 2020 Signum Records SIGCD600 Ⓟ © 2020 Signum Records 24 bit digital recording 6 35212 06002 5

6.5 138 6.5 PLEASE NOTE THIS TEMPLATE HAS BEEN CREATED USING SPECIFIC CO-ORDINATES REQUIRED FOR COMPUTER TO PLATE IMAGING AND IS NOT TO BE ALTERED, MOVED OR THE DOCUMENT SIZE CHANGED. ALL DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETRES. BLEED ALLOWANCE OF 3MM ON TRIMMED EDGES