Paths / Cesty – Janek, Martin, Schulhoff, Klein – CD

This CD brings together works by four composers whose lives and artistic paths intersected with the hopes, upheavals and tragedies of the twentieth century. Josef paek plays violin and Tom Jamnk cello in Leo Janeks String Quartet No. 1, inspired by Tolstoys Kreutzer Sonata and arranged for two instruments, as well as duos by Gideon Klein and Ervn Schulhoff and Bohuslav Martins Duo for Violin and Cello No. 1 H 157 and No. 2 H 371. The musicians view these works through the idea of paths, some chosen and some determined by fate. Janek and Schulhoff both looked toward Russia, while Schulhoff and Klein ultimately died in Nazi concentration camps; Kleins remarkable duo remained incomplete, with only two unfinished movements. Martins journey led from Europe to the United States and back, though he never returned home, and his second duo was written near the end of his life. The recording combines virtuosity, vivid joy and profound sadness in the music and stories of four composers.