Janacek: The Diary of One Who Disappeared

Amazon.com editorial review: Janácek's Diary of One Who Disappeared is a cycle, almost a quasi-opera, of 22 songs for tenor, mezzo, an offstage chorus of three female voices, and a piano. It's based on poems the composer found in a Czech newspaper purporting to be the confessions of a young man who leaves family and village for the gypsy girl he loves. The songs speak of longing, sexual attraction, guilt, regret, anxiety, and a host of other emotions wonderfully captured by Ian Bostridge, whose high tenor voice has more body and thrust than in his other recordings. Singing in the original Czech, Bostridge sounds as comfortable as a native speaker. Thomas Adès, best known as a composer, is also a superb pianist. He has to be, because the keyboard part is of vital importance, not only commenting on the vocal line and in extended postludes, but in a brief solo as well. Ruby Philogene is appropriately sultry as the gypsy, and this deeply felt performance is a triumph for all concerned. Adès scores again in the Moravian Folksongs for solo piano and in the miniature solo pieces, some of which say more in their brief span than many longer works. --Dan Davis

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