Piano served for Janáček to share his innermost emotions and feelings. He wrote his first opus, Thema con variazioni, at the age of 26, when he was studying at the Leipzig Conservatory. The miniature piece Reminiscence is one of his last scores. The composer conceived his three essential piano works, 1.X. 1905, On an Overgrown Path and In the Mists, between 1900 and 1912, which was a difficult phase in his life. They are the most personal, most intimate pieces he wrote.
BEETHOVEN: TRANSITION
During the thirty years separating his first and last piano opus, the composer tried out numberless experiments, and yet some crucial themes come up again; the imprint of his unique musical DNA is discernible from his very first opus.