Tadeáš SALVA Cello Concerto Three Arias Little Suite Slovak Concerto Grosso No. 3 Eight Preludes Eugen Prochác, Cello Ján Slávik, Cello • Nora Skuta, Piano Juraj Cˇ ižmarovicˇ, Violin • Bernadetta Šunˇavská, Organ Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra • Marián Lejava Tadeáš Salva (1937–1995) 1967 was the first Slovak work under socialism to set a typical of Salva’s work. Cello Music liturgical text. At the same time he wrote his choral Litaniae In the 1980s Salva started to designate many of his lauretanae and remarkable Glagolithic Mass on an Old- chamber pieces as Concerto Grosso or Slovak Concerto 1 Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra Slovak Concerto Grosso No. 3 for Violin, Cello Slavonic text. Beside vocal-instrumental works Salva also Grosso. Solo parts of these compositions are distinguished (1967) 11:57 and Organ (1987) wrote orch-estral and chamber music, electro-acoustic by the concertante principle and technical virtuosity; Three Arias for Cello and Piano (1990) 9 I. Etude 4:46 music, and he was the author of the first Slovak television thematically they often stem from traditional folklore opera Margita and Besná (1972), as well as of the first radio motives. Slovak Concerto Grosso No. 3 for violin, cello and 2 I. 2:59 0 II. Danza rustica 7:24 opera, The Weeping (1976). organ from 1987 has two string instruments and organ, 3 II. 6:48 ! III. Rhapsody 8:21 In the early 1970s Salva composed a cycle of pieces for forming the characteristic Corelli concertino. The diatonic 4 III. 3:53 Eight Preludes for Two Cellos (1995) various instruments, each described as a “ballad”. In these writing of the string parts suggests the idiom of Slovak @ Prelude in A flat major 2:29 Little Suite for Cello and Piano (1989) works the synthesis of folklore and avant-garde methods folklore. The dramatic progress of the work increases # 5 I. Melody: Moderato 2:01 Prelude in B flat major 2:53 – clearly inspired by Stravinsky’s work – was combined gradually through the three movements of the piece, Etude, 6 II. Song without Words: Moderato 1:36 $ Prelude in G major 2:01 with inspiration from historical models. The works Danza rustica, and Rhapsody. 7 III. Little Dance: Lento – Allegro – Moderato 2:56 % Prelude in C sharp major 3:32 characterized by this new synthesis carried a typical Salva- In 1989 and 1990 Salva wrote two cyclic pieces for cello 8 IV. Little Rondo: Moderato 2:30 ^ Prelude in B major 1:56 like title – Slovak Concerto Grosso. This attempt to achieve and piano. The four-movement Little Suite (Melody, Song & Prelude in E flat major 1:05 the integration of traditional inspiration and modern avant- without Words, Little Dance, Little Rondo) from 1989 was * Prelude in A major 1:39 garde methods resulted in a crystallization of the dedicated to Juraj Fazekaš ,who had given the première of ( Prelude in F sharp major 1:46 composer’s original musical language, pervading his vocal- his Cello Concerto. The suite brings together four con- instrumental, orchestral, chamber as well as choral works. trasting miniatures into one whole. Three Arias (1990) use Slovak composer Tadeáš Salva studied the cello, piano socialist realism did not last long, especially in Polish culture, As the cello was the instrument through which Salva the contrast of cantabile cello playing and piano passages. and accordion at the Žilina Conservatory and simultaneously and in Polish music had come to an end by 1956. In the had come to music, it is not by chance that it found its place All seven movements of both pieces are marked by studied composition privately with Ján Zimmer. He con- same year the Warsaw Autumn festival was established in his work during the whole of his creative life. Salva’s rhapsodic progress and free elaboration of diatonic themes tinued his compositional studies at the Academy of and one of its consequences was the start of the new Polish Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra was written in and motives. Performing Arts in Bratislava (1958–1960). The conservative compo-sitional school, which represented the mainstream 1967, at the time of the composer’s first period of creative The last of Salva’s compositions is the cycle Eight ambience of the Academy did not satisfy his artistic of avant-garde music for all countries under socialism. growth and of Penderecki’s Sonata and Ligeti’s Concerto, Preludes for Two Cellos, which remained unfinished. All the inclinations, however, and therefore he moved to the State Composers such as Witold Lutosł awski, Tadeusz Baird, which are similar in outline. What all the three works have movements of the cycle are dominated by a concertante College of Music in Katowice (Poland), where he graduated Kazimierz Serocki, Wł odzimierz Koton´ ski, Krzysztof in common is a two-movement form and an attempt at a use of counterpoint often employing imitational connection as a student of Bolesł aw Szabelski, former pupil of Karol Penderecki, and Henryk Mikoł aj Górecki were the leaders non-traditional approach to orchestral writing. In Salva’s between the two instruments. The rhythm of these cello Szymanowski and teacher of Henryk Mikoł aj Górecki. of the Polish school, which enriched the development of Concerto the solo instrument is joined by an orchestra bicinia is enriched by frequent use of polyrhythms. Having finished his studies, Salva worked for Czechoslovak music after the Second World War with new stimuli. It was consisting of piccolo, cor anglais, bass clarinet, violin, Salva’s works dedicated to his favourite instrument are Radio Koš ice, and later for Czechoslovak Television in in Katowice, Poland, that Salva became a student of double-bass and an extensive percussion section characterized by a synthesis of modern and traditional Bratislava, for SUK (Slovak Folk Art Ensemble), and for the Szabelski, at the college where Górecki had been teaching, (xylophone, vibraphone, wood-blocks, bongos, bass drum, elements, distinguished by kaleidoscopic transformations of Association of Slovak Composers. He also taught at the and in these surroundings Salva had an opportunity to cymbals, tubular bells, gongs and tam-tam). As with texture, extremely rich rhythmical elements and avoid-ance Faculty of Education at the Constantine the Philosopher discuss his compositions even with Witold Lutosł awski, Penderecki’s compositions, Salva uses a non-traditional of any orthodoxy in thought or inspiration. University in Nitra. Nevertheless, composition remained the the leading figure of the Polish compositional school. Thus, graphic score and aleatoric elements, yet the rhapsodic main passion and preoccupation of his whole life. when writing his student works, Salva already had the expressivity of the music is entirely unique and later became Salva had started to be interested in composition during chance to deal with the most recent problems of Vladimír Godár his childhood. He grew up surrounded by lively, genuine contemporary music. Bruitism, present in Górecki’s works folk traditions. After mastering the basic principles of play- of the time, appealed to him as well as Lutosł awski’s ing string and keyboard instruments, he fully engaged aleatoric textures and the new, expressive dimensions himself in his own compositions. The period brought artistic resulting from the confront-ation of avant-garde techniques controversy between the advocates of traditional compo- with traditional texts, in Penderecki’s compositions. Even in sition approved by the official ideology, and the defenders his first pieces Salva followed the achievements of the Polish of artistic innovation supported by strong impulses from school with texts carrying a universal humanistic message. the avant-garde in socialist countries. The doctrine of His Requiem aeternam (in memory of J. F. Kennedy) from Eugen Prochác Juraj Cˇ ižmarovicˇ The cellist Eugen Prochác was a pupil of Juraj Fazekaš at the Conservatory in Juraj Cˇ ižmarovicˇ is one of the most celebrated Slovak violinists. He has won Bratislava. He continued his studies at the Academy of Music and Drama in Prague numerous prizes and awards at national and international competitions, including the with Josef Chuchro and later with Daniil Shafran, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson, Mikhail violin competition in Belgrade, the Slovakian National Competition and the Tibor Khomitser and Angelica May. As a student he twice won the Slovak Conservatories Varga Competition. Solo appearances have taken him to many European countries, competition. He won the Interpretation Competition of Slovakia (1983) and the the United States, Japan, and Korea. He performs regularly with renowned international Premio Valentino Bucchi Competition (1990) in Rome. As a soloist he orchestras, among them the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestera, the Portland has appeared with many leading orchestras and in important festivals. Concert tours Photo: Peter Brenkus Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Czech Philharmonic have taken him him to many European music centres, and also to Canada, Japan, Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. He has collaborated with such Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and many other countries. Active as a Photo: Philipp Ramakers distinguished conductors as Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, Pierre Boulez, teacher, since 1990 he has taught at the High School of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Christian Thielemann and Giuseppe Sinopoli and is a guest at festivals, including the and from 1993 to 1997 taught at the principal conservatories in Lisbon, with master- Rheingau Musikfestival and the Bratislava Music Festival. Juraj Cˇ ižmarovicˇ was classes in Portugal, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Czech Republic. Since concertmaster of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne from 1990 to 2004, and in April 2006 he has served as director of the international Štiavnica Summer Classes, which 2004 was appointed principal concertmaster of the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne. he founded, holding and hosting cello classes. Since 1997 he has been engaged regularly as one of the concertmasters of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.