About the concert
What if this turns out to be the most minimalist ensemble in the history of the NotaBene Chamber Group? Just violin and viola. Just Pavlov and Zavhorodnii. The two highest-pitched string instruments will be heard in two formats: as a duo and in solo monologues. Yet the economy of means only serves to highlight the depth of the ideas explored in the program's four works.
The program opens with a paired arch formed by Mozart and Martinů, whose connection is one of direct influence. Mozart's Duo in G major, KV 423 vividly reflects the central artistic ideals of his early 1780s style: concision, clarity of texture, and a theatrical conception of music as a dialogue. Every cadence must persuade, and every phrase carries its own expressive weight. The combination of violin and viola often suggests a soloist accompanied by a supporting instrument, but Mozart treats the two as true partners, realizing a broader chamber-music conception within the intimate framework of just two parts. Martinů's Three Madrigals (1947) share the same inventive textures, virtuosic interplay, and three-movement design as Mozart's duo. Their title also points to the influence of the English madrigals that Martinů discovered in the 1920s and remained passionate about throughout his life. Their lively rhythms and free blending of polyphony with chordal writing are inherited from that tradition, as well as from the Czech and Moravian folk music that resonates so powerfully throughout the work.
The program's second pair-center consists of works by Sylvestrov and Penderecki, both written in the early 1980s and both representing transitional moments in their composers' artistic development. Postludium for solo violin (1981) captures Sylvestrov at a turning point: his new, "quiet" vision of music as echo and fading away is already taking shape, though still expressed through avant-garde means, with sharp dynamic contrasts, wide leaps across registers, and sonoristic techniques. Penderecki's Cadenza for solo viola (1984) likewise belongs to his shift away from the radical avant-garde of the 1960s, while presenting the instrument in its full technical and expressive range.
Concert Program
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Duo for Violin and Viola in G major, KV 423
- Valentyn Sylvestrov — Postludium for Solo Violin
- Krzysztof Penderecki — Cadenza for Solo Viola
- Bohuslav Martinů — Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, H. 313
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