Notes and Editorial Reviews
JANÁ?EK
Violin Sonata.
NOVÁK
Violin Sonata.
NEDBAL
Violin Sonata
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Ivan Ženatý (vn); Martin Krasík (pn)
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SUPRAPHON 3978 (64:19)
Ivan Ženatý’s recital with Martin Krasík brings together works by three Czech composers: the by-now familiar Sonata by Leoš Janá?ek and two earlier works by Vít?zslav Novák and Oskar Nedbal.
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Novák’s and Nedbal’s sonatas may recall the eras in which they took shape, but so does Janá?ek’s, which might be taken as expressing an almost surrealist response to the gathering storms of World War I (even though Janá?ek completed the last several of the six versions of the work that Jaromír Havlík’s notes trace well after the war had ended). Ženatý’s reading of this first movement spans both opposites that the Sonata comprehends: the terrifying opening (the bleak horrors of which return in the third and fourth movements) and a melodic sensibility (which predominates in the second movement) that nevertheless doesn’t recall an earlier era. Ženatý produces a rich, glowing sound from the 1743 Prince of Orange Guarneri del Gesù upon which he plays, a sound that’s penetrating in its upper registers and throaty in its lower ones. Recorded with lifelike fidelity, the violin almost serves as a third interpretive partner in this work. This isn’t a lean, sharp-edged reading of the Sonata in the manner of Gidon Kremer’s terrifying one (Deutsche Grammophon 427351, 16:4); but, just as Frank Peter Zimmermann (EMI 85708, 28:2) and Josef Suk (Discover 920317, 21:1) “make their points with less overtly jagged expressionistic thrusting,” Ženatý’s version represents perhaps a richer, more complex vision that nevertheless makes this thorny work thoroughly accessible.
According to the notes, Novák’s impassioned Sonata hails from his student days, and he had to revise it several times upon Dvo?ák’s insistence. Ženatý possesses not only the temperament but also the tonal weight to do justice to this sonorous and, at least in its first movement, forward-looking Sonata. The duo also seems well attuned to the second movement’s dark lyricism and sensitive dialogue; the third movement brings a return of the thunderous urgency of the first and draws upon the duo’s ample tonal reserves.
Nedbal’s Sonata, written only several years later, flows more tranquilly, though it also possesses moments of impetuous excitability. Still, listeners who tire of incessant exclamation marks may find it more congenial than Novák’s work. If the second movement promises contrast, its seriousness and heartfelt Romanticism, replete with soaring climaxes and declamatory double-stops, carry it far beyond the boundaries of simple songfulness that its opening suggests. The last movement fulminates with a fury recalling Novák’s; the duo seems especially sympathetic to Novák’s musical language, at once dialectical and vernacular in its expression.
General listeners as well as specialists should warmly welcome the duo’s performance of Janá?ek’s Sonata, as well as the recital’s less familiar repertoire. Strongly recommended.
FANFARE: Robert Maxham
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Works on This Recording
1.
Sonata for Violin and Piano by Leos Janácek
Performer:
Ivan Zenaty (Violin),
Martin Kasík (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1914-1921; Brno, Czech Republic
2.
Sonata for Violin and Piano by Vitezslav Novák
Performer:
Martin Kasík (Piano),
Ivan Zenaty (Violin)
Period: Romantic
Written: Bohemia
3.
Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 9 by Oskar Nedbal
Performer:
Ivan Zenaty (Violin),
Martin Kasík (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
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