Search - Leos Janacek, András Schiff :: Leos Janácek: A Recollection

Lovely, Dark, and Deep

Daniel R. Greenfield | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | 07/20/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's late November and you're walking out in the woods. There's a crisp coolness underfoot and in the air. And you've just lost a dear friend to time and circumstance....That is the type of Recollection which this music evokes for me. The excellent liner notes by Imre Kertesz and Robert Cowan refer to how each one of these evocative pieces is like a short story; each contains its own inner world: the "world in a grain of sand." There is the same mystical element present that one encounters in Arvo Part's music, but there is an impressionistic element as well, more lyrical than Debussy, and more emotional. The magnificent two-movement Sonate (1.X.1905) is easily the highlight of the album. It was written to commemorate a protesting Czech student executed on that date by German troops. The second movement (entitled simply, "Death") still has, as the liner notes aptly say, "the power to shock." There is an existential element to this music, that "poses the eternally unanswered and unanswerable question of the human condition" (Kertesz).In response to another reviewer who has stated that the recording's sound quality is lacking: I have listened to this recording on my car's cd player, and there it does sound rather like too much of an echo is present. But on my home stereo system, with quality speakers and subwoofer, the slight echo actually enhances the haunting quality of this music. It is, for me, that echo, that silencio between the notes, that makes this music and this performance, unforgettable."

Heart over Head

dm | rochester, ny | 04/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Firkusny studied with Janacek...almost all reviewers agree that his interpretation is truest to Janacek's intent. Yet in head-to-head listenings, it's the Schiff performance that I prefer.



I find the Firkusny performance to be clinical and dry as compared to Schiff, who is more lyrical and poetic. Firkusny may be playing it how Janacek intended, but musicians are artists and are free to interpret a piece any way they like. For this piece, I choose Schiff's interpretation."

Janacek with no bite

50cent-haircut | 01/27/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps it's unfair to compare Schiff to Firkusny, who actually knew Janacek and kept his music always close to his heart. I'm not intimating that Schiff does not know these pieces, but to the contrary, he brings a carefully studied and balanced performance of the pieces. However, the centerpiece of this disc, Janacek's piano sonata, is a disappointment. The first movement, "Presentiment", does not have the anger that Janacek intends. Janacek was a very programatic composer, and Schiff somewhat stifles the edgy passion of this movement. The second movement, "Death", is quite good in contrast. Schiff's Schubertian touch adds fine eloquence to this intense and despondent movement. "In the Mists" pieces are played with fine sensibility and sensitiveness, and other miniatures come off with lyricism, but be it his approach or the acoustics or the Bosendorfer piano that Schiff used... there just is no sense of passion, an element of unmediated emotion. Still, the benchmark is my well-traveled double disc Firkusny on Deutsche Gramophone, with a fine, thrillingly jagged account of the first movement of the sonata."