Note that the duo will play the preludes from the Well Tempered Clavier pieces by Bach and 3-4 of the Glière suite movements.
The four duetti BWV 802–805, in the successive tonalities of E minor, F major, G major and A minor, were included at a fairly late stage in 1739 in the engraved plates for Clavier-Übung III. The second duet in F major BWV 803 is a fugue written in the form of a da capo aria, in the form ABA.
i Prelude, ii Fugue
Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 855, is the 10th prelude and fugue for keyboard (harpsichord) in the first book of The Well Tempered Clavier, composed in 1722 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
i Prelude, ii Fugue
This is the 20th prelude and fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier. The Prelude is as compact as the Fugue is expansive. Two parts zigzag in turn on two little motifs: jumpy triads and a sort of trill, which can each be extended to form rippling runs. Now and then, Bach adds chords, sometimes in blocks and sometimes in a sort of written-out legato. Here, too, he interrupts the landing towards the fundamental with a diversion that leaves the listener unsatisfied. And just like the Fugue, the Prelude closes with a pedal point, along with the triumphant return of the trill motif.
i Allegro, ii Très vif, iii Lent, iv Vif, avec entrain
The Sonata for Violin and Cello is a composition written by Maurice Ravel from 1920 to 1922. He dedicated it to Claude Debussy, who had died in 1918. It premiered on 6 April 1922 with Hélène Jourdan-Morhange playing the violin and Maurice Maréchal the cello. It is in the key of A minor, with the fourth movement in the relative major key of C. It is M. 73 in the catalogue compiled by Marcel Marnat.
i Prelude, ii Gavotte, iii Berceuse, iv Canzonetta, v Intermezzo, vi Impromptu, vii Scherzo, viii Etude
Glière was a 20th-century composer with 19th-century musical instincts. Gifted and prolific, over a long career that began in Czarist Russia and ended during Stalin’s Soviet regime he never strayed from his Russian Romantic nationalist roots. While his onetime composition student Prokofiev fled to the West to escape the Russian Revolution, Glière stayed and remained relatively unscathed by the upheavals that shook the country and traumatized so many of its artists. For many years he was an esteemed professor of composition, first at the Kiev Conservatory and then at the Moscow Conservatory, where he influenced a generation of Russian composers.
3 movements
Sebastian Lee (1805-1887), born in Hamburg, began touring as a cellist at the age of 25, touring throughout Western Europe, including London and Paris. For several years, he was principal cellist in the orchestra of the Grande Opera Paris. From 1837 to 1868, he worked in the same city as a music teacher and composer. During this time, he composed some of his etudes, which are still familiar to almost every cello student today. By the time of his death—he had returned to Hamburg—he had composed well over 100 works—along with cello studies and primarily duo and trio works for string instruments.
Johan Halvorsen (1864 – 1935) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Passacaglia in G minor is based on a Theme by George Frideric Handel (from Harpsichord Suite in G minor, HWV 432) for violin and viola or cello (1897).
Bogdan Văcărescu - Violin
Bogdan Văcărescu is a Romanian virtuoso violinist living in the UK. He has toured internationally from Sydney Opera House to the U. N. Concert Hall in New York and London's Southbank. Bogdan is featured on soundtracks, notably in collaboration with Oscar winners Stephen Warbeck and Gabriel Yared, the BBC and ABC Television. He is an associate lecturer and violin tutor at the University of Chichester.
Mikhail Lezdkan - Cello
Mikhail Lezdkan studied at the Leningrad Conservatoire, and while still a student he won second prize in the Belgrade International Cello Competition in 1984. After graduation he worked in a well-known chamber ensemble, the Soloists of Saint Petersburg. In 1991 Mikhail moved to France where he led the cello section of the Lyon Opera Orchestra, and became artistic director of a chamber music ensemble in Lille. With the violinist Vanessa Mae, in 1995 and 1996 Mikhail toured Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Mikhail played in the Contemporary Music Festival, St Petersburg in 1987, giving the first performance in Russia of Messagesquisse for solo cello by Pierre Boulez. In 2003 he gave the first European performance of the Cello Concerto by the Israel composer Gil Shohat, in the Royal Concert Hall, Stockholm.
Piano
3 July 2025
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