JenniferKoh_Signs_MECH_OL_r1.indd 1 8/19/2013 2:43:06 PM Producer & Engineer Judith Sherman Editing Bill Maylone Recorded American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, April 27–28 and v LEOŠ JANÁCEK (1854–1928) October 14–17, 2012 Sonata for Violin and Piano JW VII/7 (17:29) Front Cover Design Sue Cottrill 1 I. Con moto (4:48) 3 III. Allegretto (2:38) Inside Booklet & Inlay Card Nancy Bieschke 2 II. Ballada: Con moto (5:13) 4 IV. Adagio (4:39) Cover Photography Jürgen Frank GYÖRGY KURTÁG (b. 1926) 5 Doina (from Játékok, Vol. VI)* (2:28) 6 The Carenza Jig (from Signs, Games and Messages)† (0:45) Tre Pezzi for Violin and Piano, Op. 14e (5:31) 7 I. Öd und traurig (2:14) Cedille Records is a trademark of Cedille Chicago, NFP (fka The Chicago Classical Recording 8 II. Vivo (1:06) Foundation), a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting the finest musicians and ensembles 9 III. Aus der Ferne: sehr leise, äusserst langsam (2:05) in the Chicago area. Cedille Chicago’s activities are supported in part by contributions and grants ** from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies including the Irving Harris bk Fundamentals No. 2 (from Játékok, Vol. VI) (0:30) † Foundation, Mesirow Financial, NIB Foundation, Negaunee Foundation, Sage Foundation, and the bl In memoriam Blum Tamás (from Signs, Games and Messages) (3:08) * Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. bm Like the flowers of the field... (from Játékok, Vol. V) (1:52) † bn Postcard to Anna Keller (from Signs, Games and Messages) (0:30) ** bo A Hungarian Lesson for Foreigners (from Játékok, Vol. VI) (0:19) CONTRIBUTIONS TO CEDILLE CHICAGO, NFP MAY BE * bp Fanfare to Judit Maros’ wedding (from Játékok, Vol. V) (0:46) MADE AT CEDILLERECORDS.ORG OR 773-989-2515. bq Les Adieux (in Janáceksv Manier) (from Játékok, Vol. VI)* (2:05) br In Nomine—all’ongherese (from Signs, Games and Messages)† (4:51) BÉLA BARTÓK (1881–1945) CEDILLE RECORDS® trademark of First Sonata for Violin and Piano, Sz. 75 (35:14) Cedille Chicago, NFP † 1205 W Balmoral Ave., Chicago IL 60640, USA bs I. Allegro Appassionato (12:40) solo violin 773.989.2515 tel • 773.989.2517 fax bt II. Adagio (12:11) *solo piano CEDILLERECORDS.ORG ck III. Allegro (10:17) ** CDR 90000 143 P & C 2013 Cedille Records piano and voice All Rights Reserved. Made in U.S.A TT: (76:15) 2 3 v Artists’ Statement signs, games + messages: Another inspiration for Janácek was janácek,v kurtág, and bartók his ardent belief in the pan-Slavic idea: the cultural linkage of all nations Each work on this album inhabits two worlds: the influence of Notes by Andrea Lamoreaux folklore on one hand and the composer’s striking originality on and peoples with a Slavic heritage While we know a lot about Béla the other. As a duo, we wanted to create a program that explores (he was especially interested in the Bartók and Zoltán Kodály’s research culture of Russia). His patriotic heart these intertwined strands of musical DNA, the tension between the into Hungarian and Romanian folk rejoiced when an independent visionary modernism of these masterpieces, and the visceral pull of music during the first decade of the Czechoslovakia (now two nations, folk and cultural memory that is so essential to the language of these 20th century, and Ralph Vaughan Slovakia and the Czech Republic) composers. Williams’s parallel work in English folk emerged after the First World War, music around the same time, music free (temporarily, as it turned out) The folk components in these works are as fundamental as harmony lovers tend to be less aware of the from the Austro-German domination v and rhythm, and their use goes far deeper than the merely exotic. research Leoš Janácek undertook in that had lasted for centuries. His Violin They transcend the formal use of specific rhythmic patterns or the realm of Slavic folk music some Sonata, composed and re-composed passing quotations of folk tunes. Their force can be felt behind twenty years earlier. These were his between 1914 and 1921, is seen by even the most abstract passages. The quasi-improvisatory freedom years of obscurity as an ambitious, his biographer, Mirka Zemanova, as a of Bartók’s violin soliloquies; Janácek’sv condensed, speech-like dedicated, but virtually unknown kind of reaction to that conflict. composer earning his living as a music motifs; and the various allusions of Kurtag’s enigmatic aphorisms all The sonata’s occasional Russian flavor teacher and organist in the Moravian v transform what may have begun as folk influence into part of the city of Brno. Native folksongs became has been linked to Janácek’s 1920 composer’s distinctive inner world. We hope that you find these the basis of his ideas about speech- opera Kát’a Kabanová, based on a works as profound and powerful as we do! melody; he heard parallels between Russian story, with which it shares some thematic ideas. It was another traditional tunes and the rhythms and o opera, Jenufa, that first gained cadences of language. Critic Bernard v —Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner Jacobson has noted “the curiously Janácek national and international recognition after it was premiered in abrupt rhythmic style of much of his v instrumental music,” linking it to the Prague in 1916. In the 1920s, Janácek unpredictable and varied sounds of enjoyed one operatic triumph after speech. another and also composed his choral 4 5 masterwork, the Glagolitic Mass (1927). center in the sense we’d encounter from that of the Sonata’s opening — string (G), interjects intense, jabbing His Violin Sonata was first performed in the D-flat works of, say, Chopin or sometimes almost dreamy. Once again little triplet figures. Mournful melodic in Prague in 1922. Tchaikovsky. Key centers and modes the key center is constantly shifting as passages and mysterious interjections v — major or minor — shift constantly as melodic ideas are stated and repeated continue to be juxtaposed and Zemanova notes that many Janácek v Janácek adds in chromatic tones and in a rondo-like fashion. Toward the exchanged between the instruments instrumental works originated well o sharp dissonances. The highly dramatic end, the violin takes one of these as the movement builds to a climax. before the Jenufa success. “Their opening movement marked melodies and soars very high with it in The conclusion returns to the sound of complicated history,” she writes, Con moto (moving) opens with a mournful, an improvisatory style over the piano’s the movement’s opening as the piece testifies to Janácek’sv stubborn improvisatory violin statement soon agitation; this subsides into a slower ends adagio and pianissimo. quest to perfect other genres at joined by powerful, fast-moving piano conclusion marked , extremely soft. ppp The proliferation of musical styles a time when productions of his figurations. The broad melody of the So far the basic meter has been triple, and approaches in the 20th and 21st operas were hindered through movement’s main theme is contrasted 3/4 or 3/8 time. The Allegretto scherzo, centuries has made it much harder the lack of understanding as well with a striking motive that occurs and in 2/4, starts out with a pounding folk- than in the past to pigeonhole today’s as ill luck. But by the time the recurs in both instruments: an agitated like theme in the piano part. Triple composers. György Kurtág’s creativity, composer more or less reluctantly figure of three falling 32nd notes. meter returns in the broader-paced, for example, would never fit into any sanctioned the publication of these Themes, fragments of themes, and tiny somewhat declamatory middle- kind of box. Whether it’s one of the works, his success on European motives are constantly juxtaposed and section succeeded by a return of the miniatures heard on this recording, or operatic stages was assured, and constantly shifting through continual opening folk theme and an abrupt a large-scale work like Stele, written his insecurities long forgotten. The tempo and dynamic changes. ending. for Claudio Abbado and the Berlin dramatic intensity of the Sonata for The earliest music in the sonata is its Philharmonic, or the Concertante for Violin and Piano, in particular, was Sonata finales tend to be lively and second movement, subtitled Ballada, v violin, viola, and orchestra (which won soon to win it audiences in many upbeat. Janácek’s begins adagio, which may have originated as early as the Grawemeyer Award in 2006), Kurtág countries… [it is] a work of great although that pace and the time 1908. A lyrical E major theme for violin creates a sound-world all his own. Born power which rightly holds a special signature keep changing. The piano is supported by a piano part based on in Hungary in 1926, Kurtág (like Bartók) place in the violin repertoire. states the main theme in octaves, a fast-moving 32nd notes and further studied and later taught at Budapest’s sad melody that proceeds in half- The most common key signature in characterized by complex chords. Franz Liszt Academy. A brief sojourn in steps, augmented fourths, and minor the sonata’s four movements is five The tempo marking, , could Paris shortly after the 1956 Hungarian con moto sixths. Over this the violin, playing with flats, which can signify D-flat major or easily have the word “espressivo” uprising led to contact with composers a mute and at first only on its lowest B-flat minor, but there’s no firm tonal added. The mood is quite different 6 7 Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud or a minute, perhaps two… Kurtág’s been linked to the klezmer music of chromatic scale pattern over long, and the plays of Samuel Beckett.