Intimate Sketches (Janáček)

Intimate Sketches (Intimní skici) is a collection of piano miniatures by Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) published in 1994, sixty-six years after his death.^[1]

The music

The thirteen pieces in the set, each only a minute or two long, were gathered from manuscripts and ephemeral publications, notably the People's News (Lidové noviny). Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 here are Nos. 3, 5, 12, and 13 respectively in the Album for Kamila Stösslová (Památník pro Kamilu Stösslovou).^[2]

No.	Catalogue[3]	Date	Czech title	English title	German title
1.	JW VIII/31	published 1927	Malostranský palác (Andante)	Malostransky Palace (Andante)	Kleinseiten-Palais (Andante)
2.	JW VIII/29	composed c. 1920-1926[4]	Bez názvu	Untitled	Ohne Titel
3.	JW VIII/26	published 1923	Melodie (Con moto)	Melodie (Con moto)	Melodie (Con moto)
4.	JW VIII/21	published 1911	Moderato	Moderato	Moderato
5.	JV VIII/33/3	composed 1927	Jen slepý osud?	Just blind fate?	Nur blindes Schicksal?
6.	JW VIII/33/5	composed 1928	Aby už se nemohlo jíti nikdy zpět	So you can never return	Damit man nie zurück könnte
7.	JW VIII/33/12	composed 1928	Zlatý kroužek	The golden ring	Der goldene Ring
8.	JW VIII/33/13	composed 1928	Čekám Tě!	Waiting for you!	Ich erwarte Dich!
9.	JW IX/1[5]	composed 1877	Rondo	Rondo	Rondo
10.	JW VIII/9	composed c. 1887	Na památku	In memoriam	Zum Andenken
11.	JW V/2/28[6]	composed 1896	Své Olze	My Olga	Meiner Olga
12.	JW V/14[7]	published 1920	Ukolébavka	Lullaby	Wiegenlied
13.	JW VIII/20	published 1909	Narodil se Kristus Pán	Christ the Lord is born	Geboren ist Herr Jesu Christ

Recordings

Håkon Austbø plays eleven of the pieces on his Janáček: Piano Works (Complete) (Brilliant Classics, 2005). Thomas Adès plays six of them on his recording of The Diary of One Who Disappeared with Ian Bostridge (EMI, 2001). Sarah Lavaud has recorded 5 of the pieces on a CD published by Hortus.

Related scores

Intimate Sketches was followed by a second volume of twenty-six miniatures called Moravian Dances (Moravské tance).^[8]

References

1. Leoš Janáček, Klavírní miniatury, Sešit I: Intimní skici, edited by Jaromír Dlouhý and Reinhold Kubik (Brno: Editio Moravia / Mainz: Universal Edition, 1994).
2. Leoš Janáček, Památník pro Kamilu Stösslovou, edited by Jarmila Procházková (Brno: Moravské zemské muzeum, 1994); Leoš Janáček, Album for Kamila Stösslová, edited by Jarmila Procházková, translated by John Tyrrell (Brno: Moravian Museum, 1996).
3. Nigel Simeone, John Tyrrell, and Alena Němcová, Janáček's Works: A Catalogue of the Music and Writings of Leoš Janáček (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997).
4. The undated manuscript of No. 2, Bez názvu, has ruled staves. Janáček drew his stave lines freehand early and late in his career, but used a ruler between 1910 and 1926. The metrical freedom of the piece suggests it was written towards the end of this period. See Simeone, Tyrrell, and Němcová, Janáček's Works, p. 274.
5. No. 9, Rondo, is one of the Exercises in Form Janáček wrote at the Prague Organ School in 1877, JW VIII/5. It is also treated separately in the JW catalogue, where it is assigned to Part IX: Unfinished, rather than Part VIII: Keyboard. See Simeone, Tyrrell, and Němcová, Janáček's Works, pp. 244-245 and 279 ff.
6. No. 11, Své Olze, is an early version (without words) of the folksong arrangement Nejistota (U Dunaja stála), or Uncertainty (She Stood by the Danube), which is No. 28 in Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs (Moravská lidová poezie v písních), JW V/2. See Simeone, Tyrrell, and Němcová, Janáček's Works, pp. 155-159.
7. No. 12, Ukolébavka, is the piano part from the folksong arrangement for voice and piano of the same name, JW V/14. See Simeone, Tyrrell, and Němcová, Janáček's Works, pp. 173-174.
8. Leoš Janáček, Klavírní miniatury, Sešit II: Moravské tance, edited by Jan Trojan (Brno: Editio Moravia / Mainz: Universal Edition, 1995).