Review

Leoš Janáček
On An Overgrown Path:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer

Trombone and piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2020
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and solo part.

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

On an Overgrown Path originates from Book I of a piano album Janáček composed over 1900-1912. The music resembles the style of intimate piano character pieces made notable by Schumann and Schubert, but with an infusion of Janáček’s unique compositional style: Moravian folk music, irregular phrase lengths and meters, unusual accompaniments, and surprising harmonic shifts. Janáček referred to them as personal reminisces, and the title of the collection, On an Overgrown Path, suggests the inspiration is from a time gone by. There are ten short movements. The last three: “Unutterable Anguish,” “In Tears,” and “The Barn Owl Has Flown Away,” are all believed to have been a response to the tragic death of his daughter.

The music itself is intimate, simple, and quite beautiful. The melodic material in the trombone is pulled from the primary melodic lines in the original piano score with the piano accompaniment for the most part playing what is left. The arranger blends the trombone line with the original piano part well and at the same time the instrumentation makes it something slightly new. The trombone part itself is uncomplicated, not difficult. If played alone it is almost a bit uninteresting. But when combined with piano the solo transforms into sublime music. The two parts are so interlinked that preparing this with the piano score will be crucial to a successful performance. In this respect the piece does require musical maturity and a chamber music approach. The whole album is about thirty minutes and can be performed as a whole or as separate selections. Grade 4.