1. X. 1905

1. X. 1905, also known as Janáček's "Sonata", is a two-movement (originally three-movement) piano composition which Leoš Janáček composed in 1905. This sonata was originally entitled "From the Street".

Background

Janáček intended this composition as a tribute to a worker (named František Pavlík), who, on the date indicated by the title, had been bayoneted during demonstrations calling support for a Czech university at Brno. In the work Janáček expressed his disapproval with the violent death of the young jointer. He started to compose it immediately after the accident occurred and finished composition on January 1906. The première took place on 27 January 1906 in Brno (Friends of the Arts Club) with Ludmila Tučková at the piano. Janáček also wrote a third movement (funeral march), which he cut out and burned shortly before the first public performance of the piece in 1906. He was not satisfied with the rest of the composition either and later tossed the manuscript of the two remaining movements into the river Vltava. The composition remained lost until 1924 (the year of Janáček’s seventieth birthday), when Tučková announced that she owned a copy. The renewed première took place on 23 November 1924 in Prague under the title 1. X. 1905. Janáček later accompanied the work with inscription: "The white marble of the steps of the Besední dům in Brno. The ordinary labourer František Pavlík falls, stained with blood. He came mere to champion higher learning and has been slain by cruel murderers". The first authorized printed edition of the work was published in 1924 by the "Hudební matice" in Prague.

Structure

There are two movements, of which the translated titles read:

*"Presentiment" (Con moto)
*"Death" (Adagio)

The music breathes an intense, but intimate, mood of grief and rejection.

Recordings

*Janáček: "Piano Works". Supraphon 1972. SU 3812-2 (Josef Páleníček - piano)
*Leoš Janáček: "Complete Piano Works". ArcoDiva. UP 0071-2132 (Jan Jiraský - piano)

References

* Leoš Janáček, "Compositions for piano", ed. Dr. Ludvík Kundera and Jarmil Burghauser, 1989, musical text reprinted from Complete Critical Edition of the Works of Leoš Janáček, series F/volume 1, 1979, Supraphon, Prague.
* Milan Kundera, sleeve notes for "Leoš Janáček - Piano works" (played by) Alain Planès, Harmonia Mundi, 1994.
* Janáček, Leoš: "1. X. 1905. "Sonáta". Urtext. Editio Bärenreiter Praha, 2005. BA 9501

External links

* [http://www.jmc.co.il/musicfile.asp?mid=28 Recording] by Alon Goldstein