Sonata 1.X.1905

Leoš Janáček’s sole Piano Sonata was almost lost to history when, in a pique of artistic frustration, he threw the manuscript into the River Vltava. Fortunately a friend had made a copy, and it turned up two decades later in 1924. The Sonata’s subtitles—“1.X.1905” and “From the Street”—refer to the incident that spurred its composition: the bayoneting to death of a young Moravian carpenter by the ruling Austrian forces during pro-Czech demonstrations in Brno. The Sonata is cast in two movements, lasting a total of around 12 minutes. The first, “Předtucha” (“Presentiment”), hinges on interactions between aspirational figurations in the upper keyboard and a series of more barbed, aggressive undercuttings in the bass. Movement two, “Smrt” (“Death”), meditates on a single, mournful melody which, though viewed from different angles by Janáček, cannot be brushed away. The Sonata ends funereally, a single chord tolling, bell-like, before fading into silence.