Kvapil responds most vividly to the shorter pieces on this excellent record, the seventh volume in Unicorn-Kanchana's anthology of Czech piano music. He characterizes the changing moods of the Overgrown Path suite with a sure touch, but keeps them in a proper contrast: that is to say, rather than handle them as a sequence of unrelated pieces, he makes them relate to one another within a general mood. That is one, generally, of griefs remembered. The 'overgrown path' is surely one along which this most self-honest of composers had trodden, and whose experiences, however painful, must not be smothered with forgetfulness. So Kvapil lends a wistfulness even to the livelier pieces, such as No. 5 (''They chattered like little swallows''), but also makes the anguished No. 8, which is probably connected to the death of Janacek's daughter Olga, calm rather than frenzied in its pain. A similar understanding of contrast distinguishes the four beautiful pieces of In the mists, which are marked by a dignified sadness that Kvapil understands well.
He is rather less successful in the Sonata, a work which now attracts many pianists and which is emotionally a more testing piece than it at first seems. Kvapil cannot match the eloquent reticence of Firkusny; and though Kvapil's is a commanding performance, it loses something in places by overstating the phrasing and overstressing the dynamics. Though I would not set them above Firkusny's (especially his recital on RCA Victor), and though there is also much to admire in Mikhail Rudy's similar set, these are interesting, intelligent and well-executed performances.'