Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Piotr Anderszewski

Although it might not seem so at first glance, this entire programme put together by Jakub Hrůša will be somewhat in the spirit of Janáček. Of any work in the worldwide literature, Béla Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto is the closest to Janáček in terms of its mood and folk inspiration. And if one did not to know that the composer of the Scherzo triste was Janáček’s pupil Pavel Haas, one might reasonably attribute it to Janáček himself. The colours of this beautiful, original music seem to be an outgrowth of Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, and the violin solo at the end foreshadows the next work on the programme, Taras Bulba. Suk’s Scherzo fantastique naturally follows in the compositional traditions of Dvořák, which Janáček also built upon, and we clearly find something like this in the Lachian Dances as well. It is as if all four works were somehow connected, yet each presents its composer’s mastery in an original way. Just as Leoš Janáček is an original figure who is difficult to categorise among the world’s composers, Piotr Anderszewski is an absolutely unique phenomenon on today’s piano scene. This introverted star, a virtuoso but not a showman, carefully chooses his repertoire and musical collaborators. He appears regularly with Jakub Hrůša. Anderszewski has earned international awards for his recordings of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Szymanowski, and his Polish-Hungarian roots have naturally led him to perform the music of Béla Bartók.