Cellist Jiří Bárta and pianist Terezie Fialová dedicate their new album to the legacy of Leoš Janáček. The album features three pieces originally written for violin and piano: the well-known Sonata, which had been somewhat neglected at the time of its origin, Dumka, and Romance. The violin parts of the three compositions have been arranged for the cello by Jiří Bárta and are released in a world premiere in this form. Janáček composed Dumka and Romance during his studies in Leipzig, an unhappy period when he tortured himself with doubts about his talent. They both show traces of classicist and romantic style, and Bárta's cello recording even more pronouncedly expresses the wistfully elegiac disposition of the pieces. The cello adaptation of the Sonata is based on Janáček's version from 1922. The album also includes the only two compositions by Janáček intended for cello and piano, Pohádka (Fairy Tale), with a fourth movement that had been part of one of the working versions of the work but was discarded later by Janáček, and the short Presto, originally probably intended as one of the movements for Pohádka. The catalogue of Animal Music also features a recording of the two artists' performance of Beethoven’s Sonatas for piano and cello (2021), and Jiří Bárta’s solo recording of complete Bach’s cello suites (2018).
