Janáček's Capriccio

[calimac]

Excuse the interruption, but I've just found a recording I've been looking for for nearly 50 years.

It's a particular performance of Leoš Janáček's Capriccio for piano (left hand) and wind/brass ensemble. This is the performance I first encountered the work in, way back then, and despite its spiky modernism I was captivated, much as I was by other Janáček works like his famous Sinfonietta.

But being unable to find a copy of this recording of the Capriccio for my own, I turned to other recordings of the work, and found they didn't have the particular blend and balance of instruments, and the ensemble and flow of this performance. Eventually I gave up.

Suddenly it occurred to me to check YouTube and I found it had recently gone up. It's single-channel mono (I'm pretty sure it was stereo when I heard it before) and scratchy, but it's the right performance at last. I don't expect anyone else to like this as I do, but here it is: Leonid Hambro, piano, with the Boston Brass Ensemble conducted by Eric Simon, in the Capriccio by Leoš Janáček:

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[cmcmck]

Well I certainly like it but I'm a huge fan of Janáček!

Was this one of the pieces written for Paul Wittgenstein?

[sartorias]

I do like a lot of Janacek's work (what I've found, anyway)

[calimac]

No, it was written for a different left-handed pianist, Otakar Hollmann. Being Czech, Hollmann turned to Czech composers, and Martinů, Schulhoff, and Foerster also wrote works for him. Like Wittgenstein, Hollmann had been injured in WW1, but his right arm wasn't amputated, just disabled.