Intimate Sketches

Intimate Sketches

Visions on Janácek´s Piano Music

Emanuele Torquati, piano

The project “Intimate Sketches – Visions on Janácek´s Piano Music” is intended to give a different approach to the peculiar world of this singular figure of 20th century.

A bunch of unknown sketches will be presented beside his two major works for piano, the 1 – X – 1905 Sonata and In the mist. More, like in a dialogue between his music and the contemporary one, five new works have been commissioned. The aim is to create a communication between Janácek´s Sketches and the inspirations taken from them by different point of views.

The composers are diverse in origin, including the very active Brett Dean of Australia, former member of the Berliner Philharmoniker; rising star Miroslav Srnka, who was recently awarded with a Siemens Stiftung grant-in aid; Italian composers Riccardo Vaglini and Paolo Aralla, with their different paths towards experimental creation; and Inouk Demers, who was  commissioned by groups such as the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Continuum, the Montreal and San Diego Symphonies, SurPlus Ensemble.

Dean and Vaglini’s works will draw on the Janácek sketches, Srnka’s on the final act of the seminal Jenufa, Demers on the visceral From the House of the Dead, while Aralla on the region of Mars called Janàcek.

Leos Janácek                          In the Mist (1912)

Brett Dean (1961)                   Etude (hommage a L.J.)

Inouk Demers (1970)            Liberte’ conditionnelle

Miroslav Srnka (1975)          ta vetsi (2006)

Paolo Aralla (1960)                caduceata region (leos)

Leos Janácek                            Intimate Sketches

Riccardo Vaglini (1965)        Morte di Olga Janackova

Leos Janácek                            1-X-1905, “From the Street”