Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Leos Janacek

Concertino for piano and six instruments

 

Janáček composed his Concertino for piano and six instruments in 1925, and he dedicated it to the pianist Jan Herman, who had inspired it. The first performance took place in Břno on 16 February 1926. This singular work, which is made up of four short movements, is striking above all for the search for new sonorities (especially pianistic ones) and for the rapid alternation of incisive, dry, vigorous passages with sudden, evocative, lyrical oases. (Janáček had successfully used this technique in his two beautiful string quartets.) The four movements had originally been given subtitles that referred to the world of nature and of animals, but the composer later decided to remove them. In listening to the music, however, the references to nature seem highly evident, at least in many instances.

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1. Moderato
2. Più mosso
3. Con moto
4. Allegro

Performers

Performance