In the Mists (1911-1912)

The four pieces of Janacek’s In the Mists have much in common with those of his earlier cycle of piano recollections, On an Overgrown Path. But, whereas On an Overgrown Path is a miscellaneous compilation with no clearly defined overall shape to it, In the Mist is as disciplined as a well designed sonata. It is as though he was setting out, under a similarly suggestive title – indicating scenes or memories perceived through the obfuscation of time? – to make something more coherent of the kind of inspiration that had proliferated in the earlier work. Anyway, while On an Overgrown Path had to wait until 1925 for publication, In the Mists was issued within a year of its completion in 1912.

The first movement of In the Mists is in ternary form: wistfully modal outer sections in D flat enclose a more overtly expressive middle section where a roundly harmonised chorale fragment alternates and eventually combines with a cascade of linear figuration; the chorale and the cascade are briefly recalled before the D flat major ending. The second piece, which is also in D flat, is rather more complex in construction. It is based on the melody which is introduced with drooping nostalgia in the opening bars but which is also compressed into two vigorous, almost fugal Presto passages. An enigmatic Grave episode in the middle reappears in varied form at the end.

The Andantino third piece is another ternary construction, the simple folksong melody of the G flat major outer sections being subject to painfully passionate treatment in B minor in the middle. The last piece is so free in construction that it seems like an improvisation, an impression suggested from the beginning by the fantasia-like figuration of the main theme. It is not, however, as innocently spontaneous as it seems. Forcefully expressive echoes of the middle section of the preceding piece not only prepare for the bleak ending in D flat minor but also cast a retrospective shadow over the whole cycle.

Gerald Larner ©2009