1.X.1905

The title of Janáček's only piano sonata — named for October 1st, 1905, the date a young carpenter named František Pavlík was bayoneted by Austrian soldiers during demonstrations in Brno demanding a Czech university. Janáček composed the work immediately after the event. He originally wrote three movements, burned the third before the première, and later threw the remaining manuscript into the Vltava river — but a copy had already been made. The two surviving movements are The Presentiment (Předtucha) and The Death (Smrt).

The Sonata carries real political weight — this is music of protest and mourning, not abstract expression. The first movement's urgency is that of a crowd gathering, of danger impending; the second movement is a lament for a specific human death. Perform them with that knowledge. The work should not sound polished or detached.