LIBOR NOVACEK
SATURDAY 29th OCTOBER 2011 at 8:00 pm
For programme and programme notes see below:
Libor Novacek
Programme
Janacek - On the Overgrown Path Series 1
Janacek - On the Overgrown Path Series 2
Beethoven - Sonata in C major Op 2 No 3
Brahms - Phantasien Op 116
Programme Notes
On the Overgrown Path Leoš Janáček
Series 1: Our evenings – A blown-away leaf – Come with us! – The Madonna of Frydek – They chattered like swallows – Words fail! – Good night! – Unutterable anguish – In tears – The barn owl has not flown away!
Series 2: Andante – Allegretto – Più mosso – Vivo – Allegro; adagio.
Where was Janáček going on his overgrown path: that is the question! The title of the work, and of the individual pieces, hint at the impressionist style which was at its height when the opus was composed just over a century ago, but the intimate and emotive concentration of its language point to the expressionist school which was to follow. Janáček's writing is indeed extraordinary, and inimitably his: the ambiguous tonality that always ends in a key, the irregular metre and puzzling notation: all come together to convey a wistfulness, even a nostalgia for past times – perhaps for Moravia's vanishing identity – in a sound world that is anything but retrospective. Folk themes briefly appear, contorted, and the frequent use of tremolo evokes the cimbalom. The writing is hardly pianistic – themes seem to follow Czech speech patterns in a manner more suited to Sprechgesang – yet, in a surprisingly limited tessitura, exploits the keyboard in painful understatement. Perhaps the path leads to Janáček's subconscious, as he tried to cope with the recent death of his daughter, Olga.
INTERVAL
Sonata in C major (Op 2, No 3) Ludwig van Beethoven
Allegro con brio – Adagio – Scherzo: allegro – Allegro assai
This sonata, Beethoven's first excursion into the world of virtuoso writing, was dedicated to Joseph Haydn. The first movement opens with a figure in double thirds leading into the witty opening theme, which is expanded in dramatic style with brilliantly ascending arpeggios and broken octaves. The lyrical second theme proceeds in a more relaxed vein before the opening theme returns with three ascending arpeggios, the second of which, an augmented triad, is boldly unexpected. The development moves through several modulations with more brilliant broken sixth and contrapuntal passagework, but seems to lose its way in despair before the more elaborated recapitulation and an extensive cadenza-coda. The second movement opens hesitantly in E major before a lyrical theme is heard at first quietly and then more boldly in ascending keys. All is repeated, the hesitant theme now providing a brief climax, and the movement closes with the return of the lyrical theme in a higher register. The brief scherzo is a sheer delight based on a simple turn: there central trio is stormily arpeggiated and the coda is brief. The rondo finale is based on sparkly theme which moves rapidly up and down in an arched pattern which is preserved as the theme is developed. A dreamy second theme provides contrast, but varied transitional passages in which the arched theme becomes a chorale interlude, itself subject to variation, imbue the whole movement with joyfulness before another brilliant and unusually extended coda.
Phantasien (Op 116) Johannes Brahms
Capriccio – Intermezzo – Capriccio – Intermezzo – Intermezzo – Intermezzo – Capriccio
A series of contrasting stormy capriccios and dark intermezzi, mostly in ABA form, whose nature suggests Brahms' frame of mind at the time of their composition in 1892, following the death of his sister and a lifelong friend. Brahms' anger is apparent from the crashing cannonades up and down the keyboard in the first piece and his misery in the elegiac intermezzo which follows, with its extraordinary chromatic descent before the reprise. The anger becomes more questioning in the third and some kind of answer is found in the more peaceful central section. The fourth intermezzo actually achieves some repose, especially in the beautiful una corda central section. The fifth, although graceful, is again troubled, but the sixth intermezzo arrives at true serenity before fury again erupts in the final capriccio of the set: some reconciliation is grasped at in the central section, but all is lost in the reprise until a desperate lunge to the final major chords, in what is almost a tierce de Picardie. This opus contains some of Brahms most harmonically and rhythmically adventurous writing in a moving tribute to those he had lost.
Libor Nováček has gained international reputation for his interpretations of the works of Brahms and Liszt, which have already been compared those of the great masters and are said to possess 'exceptional poetic verve and inwardness'. After winning the Landor Records 2005 Competition, he established a long-term recording contract with Landor and released two CDs of these composers to outstanding acclaim.
Libor graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2004 with the highest awards and was selected for representation by YCAT in the same year. He has won several international prizes. His concerts and tours have taken him to major festivals and venues worldwide, including the Brighton, Ryedale, North Aldeborough, Chester, Three Choirs and the Mostly Mozart festivals, the Wigmore Hall, St John's Smith Square and the Barbican in the UK, and the USA, Mexico, South America, Spain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe internationally. He has worked regularly with the Czechoslovak Chamber Orchestra, and he has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmony, Südwestfälische Symphony Orchestra, Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, English Sinfonia, and the European Union Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded for Czech Radio and BBC Radio 3.