Con moto -- Ballada: Con moto -- Allegretto -- Adagio
Leoš Janáček was born in Moravia in 1854 amidst the growth of nationalism and political unrest. He was intensely attached to his homeland and inevitably his music reflects the folk influences of his background. Having spent most of his active life as a choirmaster, teacher, and specialist in the ethnomusicology of Moravia, he also developed a keen interest in speech patterns and voice inflections as dictated by the context. His study eventually led him to a theory of speech-melody; as a result, pitch fluctuations of words and sentences are a part of his musical lines.
Janáček's recognition as a composer came quite late. In his 60s, and already partially in retirement, the productions of his opera Janufa in Prague and Vienna finally put him on the international map. The general style of his works is that the most intensely felt psychological interior is portrayed with extreme vividness. At times, the emotions are raw, hair-raising and excruciating; at other times, tragic, tender and despondent. While one might call his music disturbed and mad, another would re-cast it as severely honest in confronting the pains and fears of human life.
The Violin Sonata, one of Janáček's most popular instrumental works, was first sketched in 1914 and finally completed in 1921, after numerous revisions. A four-movement work, it alludes to the violence and the unsettling circumstances of World War I.
The first movement, Con moto, opens boldly with an introductory violin solo which is almost immediately followed by the first theme. Throughout the movement, fragmentary and cryptic motives intertwine with longer phrases. As the movement nears the end, tension builds up but finally it concludes, surprisingly peacefully, with a comfortable Db major triad.
Next, in the Ballada, the impression is one of tenderness and simplicity. The most lyrical movement of the sonata, the notes seem to flow from one another with ease. An improvisatory, anxious episode briefly interrupts the mood towards the end of the movement, but serenity soon returns.
The Allegretto is in the form of a scherzo. In this three-part movement, the first section (which is the same material as the last section) begins with the piano playing a bouncy folk melody over a buzzing series of trills. The violin intermittently interrupts with a shrieking chromatic figure. The middle section is almost pseudo-Romantic.
The final movement, Adagio, is the most rhapsodic of the Sonata. The main motif is of repetitive interruption, played ferociously in the violin, at times muted. It is a severe disruption of the poignant piano line. Interjected into the main thematic motif are two contrasting ideas. One is a sunny melody filled with hope and eagerness for life and another is what Janáček described as the majestic entrance of the Russian liberating Army into Moravia. The work ends as the main motif dynamically fades away while the ever-increasing tension of inevitable disaster scents the air.
Classical Music | Violin Music
Leoš Janáček
Sonata for Violin and Piano Play
Recorded on 07/06/2013, uploaded on 12/03/2013
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Con moto -- Ballada: Con moto -- Allegretto -- Adagio
Leoš Janáček was born in Moravia in 1854 amidst the growth of nationalism and political unrest. He was intensely attached to his homeland and inevitably his music reflects the folk influences of his background. Having spent most of his active life as a choirmaster, teacher, and specialist in the ethnomusicology of Moravia, he also developed a keen interest in speech patterns and voice inflections as dictated by the context. His study eventually led him to a theory of speech-melody; as a result, pitch fluctuations of words and sentences are a part of his musical lines.
Janáček's recognition as a composer came quite late. In his 60s, and already partially in retirement, the productions of his opera Janufa in Prague and Vienna finally put him on the international map. The general style of his works is that the most intensely felt psychological interior is portrayed with extreme vividness. At times, the emotions are raw, hair-raising and excruciating; at other times, tragic, tender and despondent. While one might call his music disturbed and mad, another would re-cast it as severely honest in confronting the pains and fears of human life.
The Violin Sonata, one of Janáček's most popular instrumental works, was first sketched in 1914 and finally completed in 1921, after numerous revisions. A four-movement work, it alludes to the violence and the unsettling circumstances of World War I.
The first movement, Con moto, opens boldly with an introductory violin solo which is almost immediately followed by the first theme. Throughout the movement, fragmentary and cryptic motives intertwine with longer phrases. As the movement nears the end, tension builds up but finally it concludes, surprisingly peacefully, with a comfortable Db major triad.
Next, in the Ballada, the impression is one of tenderness and simplicity. The most lyrical movement of the sonata, the notes seem to flow from one another with ease. An improvisatory, anxious episode briefly interrupts the mood towards the end of the movement, but serenity soon returns.
The Allegretto is in the form of a scherzo. In this three-part movement, the first section (which is the same material as the last section) begins with the piano playing a bouncy folk melody over a buzzing series of trills. The violin intermittently interrupts with a shrieking chromatic figure. The middle section is almost pseudo-Romantic.
The final movement, Adagio, is the most rhapsodic of the Sonata. The main motif is of repetitive interruption, played ferociously in the violin, at times muted. It is a severe disruption of the poignant piano line. Interjected into the main thematic motif are two contrasting ideas. One is a sunny melody filled with hope and eagerness for life and another is what Janáček described as the majestic entrance of the Russian liberating Army into Moravia. The work ends as the main motif dynamically fades away while the ever-increasing tension of inevitable disaster scents the air.
Notes and copyright by Midori
More music by Leoš Janáček
On an Overgrown Path I, They chattered like swallows
String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters"
In the Mists
Pohadka (Fairy Tale)
Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, From the Street
Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, From the Street
String Quartet No. 1 "Kreutzer Sonata"
Moravian Folk Dances
On an Overgrown Path I, Our evening
On an Overgrown Path I, A blown-away leaf
Performances by same musician(s)
String Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 97
String Quintet No. 3 in C Major, K. 515
String Quartet No. 6
String Quartet in a minor, Op. 51, No. 2
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