Klavrn dlo – CD

Jan Barto performs Leo Janeks complete piano works, including 1. X. 1905, On an Overgrown Path I and II, In the Mists, Thema con variazioni and Reminiscence. Before his love of composition prevailed, Janek aspired to become a piano virtuoso, and the instrument became a familiar means of expressing his innermost world. He wrote his opus one, Thema con variazioni, as a 26-year-old student at the Leipzig Conservatory, while the brief Reminiscence is one of his final musical manuscripts. Janek composed his three major piano works during a difficult period between 1900 and 1912, and they are among the most personal and intimate works in his output. Their sound is often inspired by the cimbalom he encountered while collecting folk songs in Moravia. The folk-music roots and Silesian origins shared by composer and performer are reflected in Bartos interpretation, which combines deep musicological insight with intuitive feeling. The recording presents Janek as a return to his deepest roots.