Josef Špaček and Miroslav Sekera

Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek – Rondo for Violin and Piano, Op. 8
Antonín Dvořák – Romantic Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 75
Luboš Fišer – “The Hands”, Sonata for Violin and Piano
Bedřich Smetana – From the Homeland
Bohuslav Martinů – Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 3

 

The recital by the outstanding violinist Josef Špaček will be devoted entirely to compositions by Czech composers from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. The evening’s programme is an example of the quality and variety of Czech composers who have enriched the world’s violin literature. 

Jan Hugo Václav Voříšek (1791–1825) is one of the most remarkable composers of early Romanticism. Although he died very young, he lived a colourful life and achieved a remarkable career not only as a composer, but also as a piano virtuoso, conductor and teacher. His Sinfonia in D is probably the best known today, but his other works, including his chamber music, are also outstanding. He composed his works mainly after his departure for Vienna in 1915, where he also composed the Rondo for Violin and Piano.

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) completed his Romantic Pieces in January 1887 and the same year they were published by Simrock. The four contrasting sections, each based on a single theme, are masterfully written and it is no wonder that Romantic Pieces soon became a popular and sought-after work. 

For Josef Suk (1874–1935), Antonín Dvořák, his teacher and later also his father-in-law, was a defining figure. The young composer composed his Piano Pieces, Op. 7 in 1892–93, shortly after graduating from the Prague Conservatory Master School. The first piece of this cycle is Romance, subsequently called Song of Love. The piece soon became so popular that a number of transcriptions for different instrumentations were made. The arrangement for violin and piano is probably the best known, made in 1912 by Jan Mařák and ten years later by Jaroslav Kocian. 

Undoubtedly one of the most interesting pieces of the evening is “The Hands”, Sonata for Violin and Piano by the outstanding composer Luboš Fišer (1935–1999). His extensive work includes compositions of various character in the orchestral field, as well as vocal and chamber works. Fišer was also an unmissable author of numerous film and television scores. The violin sonata “The Hands” was written at the beginning of the composer’s oeuvre, in 1961 shortly after his studies at the Prague Academy, and is still one of Fišer’s most performed compositions.

Two pieces for violin and piano “From the Homeland” by the founder of modern Czech music Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) are among the composer’s frequently performed, otherwise uncommon chamber works. Smetana composed these two virtuoso duos for violin and piano in 1880, in the vicinity of the movements Tábor and Blaník from the cycle My Country or the opera The Devil’s Wall. 

The extensive four-movement Sonata for Violin No. 3 by Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) was composed in 1944 in American exile in New York and is one of the composer’s key works for this instrument.

Jiří Zahrádka