Janacek: On an overgrown path (Alain Planès)

Album review

Leos Janácek's most important works for piano are included on this recording by Alain Planès: The so-called sonata 1.X.1905; the two books of On an Overgrown Path, and In the mists. The miniature Vzpomínka (Memory) from the last year of Janácek's life completes the program. As with Janácek's "Intimate Letters" string quartet, these are highly personal, and at times passionate, works. They are also marked by an economy of sound. Janácek used only what was needed to express himself, and to many listeners it's a revelation how personal the music can sound when there doesn't seem to be much to it. This is especially true with On an Overgrown Path. Here, part of the simplicity is explained by the inspiration for the collection: the illness and death of Janácek's daughter. There is a little more substance in the Sonata and In the mists, and it's these that are the highlights of Planès performance, as author Milan Kundera points out in his accompanying notes (Kundera's father was a student of Janácek's). Planès gives the music the depth of personal emotion it requires without being too intensely intimate or anguished. He sympathizes with Janácek and also enables the listener to and not feel embarrassed or intrusive about doing so. The sound of Harmonia Mundi's mid-'90s recording is slightly distant and echoic, but in a way that helps the music not become too intimate or intense, although it also tends to romanticize it.
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