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Suk, Martinu & Fiser: Works for Violin & Piano on CD

Suk, Martinu, and Fiser in the creative hands of young virtuosos

The Supraphon debut of 18-year-old Daniel Matejca (Ysaye - 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 Matejca - 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, Martinu, and Lubos Fiser.

Martinu 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.

Martinu'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, Lubos Fiser, 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 straus, 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."