Suk, Martinů, Fišer: Works for Violin and Piano

Josef Suk (1874-1935) – Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 17 (1900). Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) – Czech Rhapsody for Violin and Piano, H. 307 (1945), Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano, H. 182 (1929). Luboš Fišer (1935-1999) – The Hands. Sonata for Violin and Piano (1961)

Daniel Matejča – violin, Jan Schulmeister – piano

The Supraphon debut of 18-year-old Daniel Matejča (Ysaÿe – Violin Sonatas, 2023) has attracted great attention with critics around the world writing about his remarkable talent, comparing his recording with the very best. That same year, the 17-year-old pianist Jan Schulmeister came away from Texas with third prize at the prestigious Cliburn Junior Competition. And also that year, the Matejča – Schulmeister duo celebrated victory in the chamber music category at the competition Concertino Praga; that opened them the door to the studio for the making of this recording. Instead of brilliant, virtuosic show pieces, the young artists chose challenging Czech repertoire of the 20th century with pivotal works by Suk, Martinů, and Luboš Fišer. Martinů composed his Czech Rhapsody in the USA just after the end of the Second World War for Fritz Kreisler, who was 70 years old by then. Even today, this beautiful composition is a great technical challenge for the soloist. Martinů’s First Violin Sonata (1929) still belongs to the composer’s Paris period, as can be seen from jazz elements and the sometimes impressionistic mood of the piano part. The third composer, Luboš Fišer, is known mainly in his homeland, but his music also earned international awards (UNESCO prize, Prix d’Italia). His violin sonata The Hands was originally supposed to have been titled Crux, but that was completely unacceptable during the period of harsh communist rule. In the words of Ivan Štraus, who premiered the sonata, “…the composition could be interpreted as a loose depiction of the Stations of the Cross at Easter with dramatic moments of whipping, hatred, and anxiety followed by a funeral procession (pizzicato) and then the glorious Resurrection in the concluding apotheosis to the sound of bells.”

Suk, Martinů, and Fišer in the creative hands of young virtuosos