Search - Leos Janacek, Frantisek Jilek, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra :: Sinfonietta / The Danube / Violin Concerto / Schluck and Jau

Get This One for the Violin Concerto

M. C. Passarella | Lawrenceville, GA | 01/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The least useful item on the present disc is the Sinfonietta, certainly one of Janacek's greatest hits, and there are myriad recordings of the same. This one is hardly at the top of the heap, good though it is. What it has going for it is a certain rawness, a primitiveness in the playing--a virtue in this case. We want a pesante quality to the performance; polish and suavity have no place at Janacek's table. Of course, there is a historical connection as well: Brno, where Janacek taught at the conservatory, was the composer's home for many years.



In the other works, there is far less competition, and I really think both orchestra and conductor are more engaged. For these works alone, the disc is valuable indeed. "The Danube" is a tone poem in four movements that may or may not have something to do with the eponymous river. The piece is, nonetheless, interesting, atmospheric music, not the least for the inclusion of a wordless soprano solo in weirdly jaunty third movement. The same can be said for "Schluck und Jau." Like most late Janacek, and that includes "The Danube," it is built out of tonally vague, short motifs that are repeated over and over again with a hypnotic cumulative effect. A prognosticator of late-20th-century minimalism, Janacek now seems very current indeed. In fact, if John Adams didn't have that third movement of "The Danube" in his head when he composed "The Chairman Dances," well, chalk it up to the Great Minds Think Alike phenomenon.



However, the most remarkable piece on the disc is the Violin Concerto. This is a nominal concerto but more a tone poem with obbligato violin. Janacek subtitled the work "Pilgrimage of the Soul," which might, as in the case of most tone poems, give you an inkling as to what the composer had in mind when he put pen to paper; your reaction might be quite different. Be that as it may, this is fascinating music: mysterious, insinuating, with quietly apposite orchestration, including subtle use of percussion. Even if you won't hear the Violin Concerto in the concert hall soon (its short duration argues against that), you can still enjoy this intriguing work thanks to the good folks at Supraphon.

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