Janáček: 1.X.1905

Introduction

1. X. 1905, also known as Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, is a two-movement (originally three-movement) piano sonata composed by Leoš Janáček in 1905. It is also known as From the Street.

Background

Janáček intended the composition to be a tribute to a worker named František Pavlík (1885–1905), who on 1 October 1905 was bayoneted during demonstrations in support for a Czech university in Brno. In the work, Janáček expresses his disapproval of the violent death of the young carpenter. He started to compose it immediately after the incident occurred and finished its composition in January 1906. The première took place on 27 January 1906 in Brno (Friends of the Arts Club), with Ludmila Tučková at the piano. Janáček also wrote a third movement, a funeral march, which he cut out and burned shortly before the first public performance of the piece in 1906. He was not satisfied with the rest of the composition either and later tossed the manuscript of the two remaining movements into the river Vltava. He later commented with regret about his impulsive action: "And it floated along on the water that day, like white swans". The composition remained lost until 1924 (the year of Janáček’s seventieth birthday), when Tučková announced that she owned a copy. The renewed premiere took place on 23 November 1924 in Prague, under the title 1. X. 1905. Janáček later accompanied the work with the following inscription:

"The white marble of the steps of the Besední dům (WP:cs) in Brno. The ordinary labourer František Pavlík falls, stained with blood. He came merely to champion higher learning and has been slain by cruel murderers."

The first authorized printed edition of the work was published in 1924 by the Hudební matice in Prague.

The Dutch composer Theo Verbey made an orchestral version of 1.X.1905, which premiered on 9 May 2008 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, with the Dutch Radio Filharmonisch Orkest conducted by Claus Peter Flor.

Movements

The two movements in this sonata are:

• Foreboding (Předtucha) – Con moto
• Death (Smrt) – Adagio