Leoš Janáček's On an Overgrown Path ('Po zarostlém chodníčku') Book 1 performed LIVE by pianist Leon McCawley at Wigmore Hall, London on October 10th 2020. ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00.00 Our Evenings 03.30 A Blown Away Leaf 05.54 Come With Us! 07.20 The Madonna of Frýdek 10.26 They Chattered Like Swallows 12.37 Words Fail! 14.36 Good Night! 17.33 Unutterable Anguish 21.00 In Tears 23.44 The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away ABOUT THE MUSIC The first five pieces of the two sets that Janáček called On an Overgrown Path were composed around 1900, for harmonium. The first set was completed as ten piano pieces in 1908, and Janáček then gave them their present titles. The overall title refers to a Moravian wedding song in which the bride laments that "the path to my mother's has become overgrown with clover", and the pieces, as Janáček wrote in 1908 in an explanatory letter to the musicologist Jan Branberger who was interested in publishing them, "contain distant reminiscences. Those reminiscences are so dear to me that I do not think they will ever vanish." Some of these memories are apparently happy, others intensely sad. In 1903 there occurred the central tragedy of Janáček's life, the death of his daughter Olga from typhoid fever at the age of twenty-one. The last three pieces of Set 1 certainly refer to Olga's death: in Czech folklore the owl, sýček, is a bird of ill-omen (the English title in the published edition is 'The barn owl has not flown away' but Janáček gives a very accurate representation of the tawny owl's cry, whereas the barn owl screeches). 'Our evenings' has a theme rather similar to the 'Promenade' from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, appropriately enough in a piece acting as an introduction. In his letter to Branberger Janáček describes 'A blown-away leaf' as "a love song" and 'Come with us!' as - enigmatically - a "letter filed away for good". 'The Madonna of Frýdek' (a town in Moravia near Janáček's birthplace of Hukvaldy) contains solemn organ-like chords and a repeated motif "sung by a far-off procession". 'They chattered like swallows' is precisely named inasmuch as the women's chattering referred to is also a close imitation of the song of the swallow. 'Words fail!' expresses "the bitterness of disappointment"; "Good night!" (scored for woodwind, brass and xylophone, with just two notes from the double basses) is about "the mood of parting". 'Unutterable anguish', the strangest of all the pieces, is sufficiently explained by its title. "Do you sense crying in the penultimate piece?", Janáček writes of 'In tears' - the best-known of these pieces, "A foreboding of certain death. An angelic being lay in deathly anguish through hot summer nights." In the last piece, 'The owl has not flown away', the tawny owl's relentless cry alternates with a chordal motif that Janáček calls "an intimate song of life". The owl - fate - has the last word. As Janáček wrote: "All in all, there is suffering beyond words contained here." © David Matthews SUBSCRIBE: youtube.com/LeonMcCawleyP... WEBSITE: leonmccawley.com FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/Leon.McCawle... BUY THE ALBUM: leonmccawley.com/recordings/ ABOUT LEON McCAWLEY Described as ‘a pianist of rare quality’ by London's Daily Telegraph, Leon McCawley is recognised as one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. He has performed all over the world in the most prestigious concert halls. His recordings have received 5 star reviews and many accolades including Gramophone Editor’s Choice and Diapason d'Or. CONTACT INFO: leonmccawley.com/contact/