Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 'From the Street' (Z ulice), JW 8/19

Two-movement piano sonata in E♭ minor composed 1905, one of the most politically charged works in the piano repertoire. Inspired by the death of František Pavlík, a young carpenter bayoneted during demonstrations in Brno demanding a Czech university. Janáček composed it immediately after the events and finished in January 1906. He originally wrote three movements, but burned the third (a funeral march) before the première. Later he threw the remaining two movements into the river Vltava, but the score had already been copied. The two surviving movements are: I. Předtucha (The Presentiment) — Con moto; II. Smrt (The Death) — Adagio.