Leoš Janáček - Piano Works (Rudolf Firkušný)

Information

Composer: Leoš Janáček

CD1

• Tema con variazioni
• On the Overgrown Path
• Reminiscence

CD2

• Piano Sonata No. 1. X. 1905 'From the street'
• In the Mist
• Concertino for piano and champer orchestra
• Capriccio for piano (left hand) and wind instruments

Rudolf Firkušný, piano

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Rafael Kubelík, conductor

Date: 1971; 1970

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

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Leoš Janáček (3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, one of the most important exponents of musical nationalism of the 20th century. He studied at the Prague, Leipzig, and Vienna conservatories. His earlier works was influenced by contemporaries such as Dvořák, but later he began to incorporate his studies of national folk music and language to create a highly original synthesis. Janáček's later works, which are his most celebrated, include operas Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works.

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Rudolf Firkušný (11 February 1912 – 19 July 1994) is a Czech-born American pianist. He began studying music at age five with Leoš Janáček and later trained under Vilém Kurz and Josef Suk. He also studied in France, Germany, and Italy with Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. Firkušný debuted in the U.S. in 1938 and settled in New York after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, later becoming an American citizen. He performed all over the U.S. as well as in Europe and Japan, appeared with major orchestras, and made many excellent recordings. He taught at Juilliard and remained active until his death from cancer in 1994.

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