Le Bout du Monde is a rustic residence located in the commune of Durtal, at the end of a quiet enclave on the banks of the River Loir in Western France. It is adjacent to the historic and recently restored Chapelle Saint Léonard, which is equipped with a well-maintained Steinway D grand piano. Here, furniture designer Agnès Yamakado and sound engineer Pierric Guennégan launched the Festival Musical Durtal, where a small group of gifted young pianists from all over the world meet for masterclasses led by the acclaimed pianist Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy.

As a guest teacher and lecturer over four days in September 2023, I worked alongside Wolfram, helping to coach his students in preparation for a public concert in the Chapelle. One student, Jan Čmejla, was en route to Durtal after playing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 1, and could only turn up on the day of the concert. After dinner the night before, the students and I watched some of Jan’s uploaded performance. Even on Wolfram’s smartphone, I could sense his effortless virtuosity, fluid sense of style and identification with Liszt’s idiom.

Born in Prague in 2003, Čmejla began playing the piano at the age of six. A brief concert video recorded in January 2011 reveals the seven-year-old’s natural ease at the instrument and innate sense of rhythm, together with an obvious joy in playing. He began his musical education at the Music School of Ilja Hurník and at the Secondary School and the Music School of the City of Prague, where he studied with Tat’ána Vejvodová and Lukáš Klánský. He also discovered his ability to improvise and developed an interest in composing.

As with many prodigies, Čmejla’s rapid development led him towards the competition route. At the age of 10 he won the international competition Virtuosi per musica di pianoforte in Ústí nad Labem, a prize he’d reclaim five years later. Other early first-prize victories included Chopin for the Youngest (2015), the Novák International Piano Competition (2015) and a prestigious ‘Golden Nut’ prize (2013) awarded to the most talented children in the Czech Republic. The pianist’s competition successes enabled him to play concertos with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, along with a performance at the 2016 Prague Music Festival with violinist Václav Hudeček.

In 2015 Čmejla travelled to Vienna as one of 10 pianists selected to participate in the Allianz Junior Music Camp, an organisation established in 2013 in partnership with the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. Each year the camp brings together young talents in major global cities, where they perform music together and meet and work with Lang Lang. I asked Čmejla about his first encounter with the acclaimed pianist. ‘Lang Lang was my childhood hero,’ he began, ‘so when we first met, I was truly overwhelmed. I don’t recall many details, but I do remember that he was encouraging me by gesticulating and reacting to the music in a physical, emotional way. He wanted me to tell a story through my playing.’ Later Čmejla became a Junior Camp Music Ambassador, and was featured in the Lang Lang Foundation’s Play It Forward Virtual Concert Series performing Chopin’s Barcarolle and Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No 7.

Čmejla is currently studying with Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim. Before that, he studied with Eva Boguniová at the Prague Conservatory. Schmitt-Leonardy first heard Čmejla around 2018. ‘Even at 15, you immediately could sense Jan’s strong personality,’ Schmitt-Leonardy recalls. ‘He already had a tendency towards exploring the dark and morbid sides of certain pieces. Perhaps this reflects the vulnerable side of his sweet and soft nature as a person. Yet his playing also conveys energy and strength. His focus, concentration, power and courage are so strong that even when he’s fighting with a not-so-great piano or poor acoustics, somehow Jan manages to communicate what he wants to say in the music.’ At the same time, Čmejla credits Schmitt-Leonardy’s influence. ‘He always likes to hear textural transparency from top to bottom, along with plasticity of phrasing, even in wild pieces like Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata, which I studied with him.’

I certainly noticed these qualities when I heard Jan for the first time in Durtal. Within the first few bars of a selection of pieces from Rameau’s keyboard suites I immediately detected the warmth, the depth and the boundless palette of colours characterising Čmejla’s sonority. I noticed his subtle differentiations in dynamic shadings and a wide range of articulations at the ready.

More importantly, I could sense his ambition to read between the lines and probe behind the notes. Čmejla told me that the recordings of Grigory Sokolov inspired him to take up Rameau on the modern concert grand, which somehow explained the sophisticated tonal application. During our coaching session, I made only one suggestion: that Čmejla take Janáček’s specific tempo directives on faith throughout one particular movement of On an Overgrown Path. He didn’t quite do so in concert, but the results still convinced; the speech-like nature of Janáček’s phrases was vividly alive and expressively cogent.

On his autumn 2023 North American tour, Čmejla performed Rachmaninov’s imposing Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op 22. The major event was a recital organised by the Czech Embassy at Ottawa’s Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre on the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the foundation of the independent Czechoslovak state. Perhaps the project that Čmejla most looks forward to is a forthcoming album devoted to music by his countryman Adam Skoumal. ‘He’s a fantastic composer who really understands the piano, and whose works have real depth and substance. It’s been an honour working with him. But my main goal is to keep exploring repertoire and to continue to play and also to teach. I have learned so much from great teachers, and it’s selfish to keep it all for myself. After all, music is about giving more than taking.’ 

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of International Piano. Never miss an issue – subscribe today