Suk, Martin, Fier: Skladby pro housle s klavrem – CD

This CD brings together works by Josef Suk, Bohuslav Martin and Lubo Fier, performed by young virtuosos Daniel Mateja on violin and Jan Schulmeister on piano. Matejas Supraphon debut attracted considerable attention, with international critics praising his remarkable talent, while Schulmeister won third prize at the prestigious The Cliburn Junior Competition in Texas. In the same year, the MatejaSchulmeister duo won the chamber music category of the Concertino Praga competition, opening the way to the studio and this recording. Rather than choosing showy virtuoso pieces, the musicians selected demanding Czech twentieth-century repertoire: Suks Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Martins Czech Rhapsody and First Violin Sonata, and Fiers violin sonata Hands. Martin wrote the Czech Rhapsody in the United States shortly after the end of the war for the then 70-year-old Fritz Kreisler, and its solo part remains a major technical challenge. His First Violin Sonata dates from his Paris period in 1929, with jazz elements and an occasionally impressionistic piano part. Fiers Hands, originally intended to be called Crux, was composed in 1961 during the period of hard-line communism. As violinist Ivan traus, who premiered the sonata, explained, it can be understood as a free depiction of the Stations of the Cross, moving through scourging, hatred, anxiety and a funeral procession to a celebration of the Resurrection in the concluding apotheosis, accompanied by bells.