Martinů: Duo No.1 for violin & cello


Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

The 1927 Duo for violin and cello was composed in the years when Martinů was the leading Czech musical correspondent in Paris, shuttling back and forth to Prague and reporting on the Parisian musical scene to the Czech cultural press. In Paris he studied composition with Albert Roussel and assimilated many of the trends of the time including jazz, surrealism, and neoclassicism. He was especially taken with Stravinsky's music. During these years he likely heard such characteristic works as Stravinsky's Octet, Concerto for Piano and Winds, and Serenade in A. But as much as one can hear the influence of Stravinsky's neoclassical style in his music at this time, Martinů's own voice clearly comes through.

One of the interesting features of the Duo is just how incredibly close the violin and cello lines remain throughout the work, both vertically, as they often share a narrow range of pitches, and horizontally, as they nip at one another's heels in close or overlapping imitation (stretto) and split phrases (hocket). Composer Mel Powell has given an updated definition of 'counterpoint' as 'the art of creating multiplicity.' One normally expects some sort of counterpoint in a work for two distinct instruments, especially if one is voiced in the upper register and the other in the lower. But Duo fails Powell's criterion almost entirely (at least at the 'note-against-note' surface level). And this is where its genius lies. If you close your eyes so that you don't actually see the two performers, you begin to hear the work not as two distinct lines of notes tangling and weaving in and out, but as a kind of ribbon of many colors – call it a 'hypermelody'. (But remember, you have to close your eyes and just listen.)
–– Program Note for Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival by Stephen Soderberg (2016)



Duo for violin and cello, 1927, Paris
1. Praeludium. Andante Moderato
2. Rondo. Allegro con brio
Jakub Junek (vl), Ivan Vokac (vc)
(Winners of Concertino Praga 2006, Rudolfinum, Prague),


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