i Con moto, ii Ballada, iii Allegretto, iv Adagio
Violin Sonata, a composition for violin and piano, is a work of the Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854–1928). It was written in the summer of 1914, but it was not Janáček’s first attempt to create such a composition. He resolved to compose a violin sonata already as a student at the conservatoire in Leipzig in 1880, and later during his studies in Vienna. His early sonatas are today lost.
Elegy was composed in 1939, just one year before Kaprálová’s death. It is composed for solo violin and piano and has made a lasting impression on violinists since its conception. The lamenting opening from the solo violin sets the sombre scene for when the piano enters a few bars later. Elegy plays on traditional Czech folk tunes, as well as tugging at the heartstrings through Kaprálová’s rich textures and use of the violin’s range. The relationship between the two instruments is completely complementary, and as the dynamic grows, the two instruments flourish together.
Romance for violin and piano is a short occasional composition by Bohuslav Martinů from May 1930, which its author did not mention in any list of his works. The piece was only found in 2022 by an employee of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute, Mrs. Natália Krátká, in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. The library provided the Bohuslav Martinů Institute with its digital copy on September 14, 2022. The manuscript is dedicated by the author to Boris Lipnitzki, a French photographer of Ukrainian-Jewish origin. There is also an unproven hypothesis that this is actually a newly created and newly dated author’s copy of his at present missing Romance from 1910.
The Romance in F minor, Op. 11, (B. 39) is a single-movement work for violin and orchestra by Antonín Dvořák, published in 1879. Dvořák also wrote an arrangement of Romance with piano accompaniment, a version he dedicated to his friend, the violin virtuoso František Ondříček.
i Moderato, ii Andantino
Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people’s aspirations to a cultural and political “revival”. He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. From the Homeland is a mixture of melancholy and happiness with strong affinity to Czech folk material.
Leora Cohen - Violin
Leora Cohen is a British-American violinist. She enjoys a diverse career, performing as a recitalist, soloist and ensemble musician around the world. Leora graduated with a double first class (summa cum laude) from Cambridge University and has been awarded two Diplomas with Distinction by the Royal College of Music in London. Previous professors include Remus Azoitei, Ani Schnarch and Alexander Gilman.
Paul Wingfield - Piano
Paul Wingfield attended Chetham’s School of Music, where he studied the oboe with Sonia Wrangham and Evelyn Barbirolli, and the piano with Charles Hopkins. He lectures in Music at Cambridge University and has published widely on nineteenth-and-twentieth-century music. Paul specialises in Czech Music. He is an expert on Janacek and is on the Board of Editors for the Complete Martinu Edition.
String ensemble
9 January 2025
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