Classical and Modern Music
Format: CD
Code: 112157
EAN: 3838898112157
ANDREJ KOPAČ: VIOLIN
The violinist Andrej Kopač was born in Ljubljana in 1978 and graduated with an honours degree from the Carintische Musikakademie in Klagenfurt, Austria (Prof. Helfried Fister, Prof. Saewon Suh) and at the Music Academy of Ljubljana, Slovenia (Prof. Volodja Balzhalorsky, who was also his mentor during his postgraduate studies).
During his studies, Andrej Kopač attended numerous master classes (Ozim, Abe, Gratovich, Krines, Ivanov, Košuta, Roman Nodel) and was for five seasons a member – as the first violin – of the European Youth Symphony Orchestra. Kopač has performed in Slovenia, Austria, Italy and Slovakia. From all his concerts, the following probably stand out the most: May 9th, 2005 at the Ljubljana Town Hall (Slovenian Jeunesses Musicales) with his solos for violin (Bach, Sonata No. 3; Kopač, Sonetude
"Goodbye, My Friend, Goodbye"; Ysaÿe, Sonata No. 6); November 2005 at the Academy of Music in Banska Bistrica, Slovakia; and a soloist recital for solo violin in Celje, August 17th, 2006. In March 2007, Kopač appeared at the premiere of the Concert for Violin and other String Instruments by Peter Kopač (Celje, Slovenia, season concert by the Celje String Orchestra, Nenad Firšt) and repeated the performance in the same year in July in Bled, Slovenia (Soloists Chamber Orchestra of the Society
of Slovene Composers). Andrej Kopač is a permanent member of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra) and the violin teacher at the Konservatorij za glasbo in balet Ljubljana (Ljubljana Music Conservatory).
The six sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach are still considered to be the essential works for solo violin. Up until the 20th century, no-one ever attempted to develop this compositional genre. In the 19th century, only a few violin virtuosos, such as Niccolo Paganini, Henryk Wienawski and Wilhelm Ernst used the technical abilities of their instruments to the extreme in their concert etudes, capriccios and virtuosic variations for violin solo, but
they didn't introduce anything new to the compositional style and form themselves. The mould was finally broken at the turn of the 20th century by the German composer Max Reger, who wrote six sonatas and twelve preludes and fugues for violin solo in the form of Bach's and with harmonies from the Late Romantic Era. They were soon followed by some key works, such as Sonata the Solo Violin by Bela Bartók, Six Sonatas for Solo Violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, Sonata for Solo Violin by Sergei Prokofiev and
also by some later composers, who with their new compositional tools reached into the fields of tonality, harmony and sound effects. Some of these composers experimented also in the sense of liberating both the form and the metre. The first sonata for solo violin in Slovenia was composed by the Late-Romantic composer Matija Bravničar, who was later followed by numerous composers who are still active in this field and whose works I represent on my CD.
ČRT SOJAR VOGLAR proved with his sonatina for solo violin to be an excellent connoisseur of the instrument. He knew how to use all the technical elements and colours of the violin sound. I premiered this composition in 2006 at my post-graduate recital.
NENAD FIRŠT was in 1988 just completing his violin studies. Since he didn't know which Slovene composition to play, even the night before his graduation, he wrote one himself and rehearsed it the morning of his recital. He says that that was the worst performance of all time, but "Something Wild" is despite this claim by the composer as a very important contribution toward the Slovene scores for violin solo.
He tried his hand at this discipline again in 2000, with his composition "Letters" in three movements. In the first and the second movement, the composer didn't define the metre deliberately so as allow for the free rhythmical movement and melodic flow. This seemingly complex rhythmical notation creates the illusion of a tempo rubato, which is dissolved in the third movement by the combination of seven-eight and five-eight times with their energetic and insistent character.
PETER KOPAČ. The title itself, Sonetude, suggests the possible combination of an etude and a sonata for solo violin with their typical virtuosity and hidden polyphony. A well-trained ear and an analytical approach to this complex score will recognise a series of character variations to the key motif from the inception of the piece, lurking behind the seemingly two movement structure of this composition, where the harmony is built on only in minor
sevenths, without naturals and therefore creates a feeling of uncertainty and unpredictability, while the melody is bound together by a tritone movement in a punctuated rhythm, which only further blurs the materials theme.
IVO PETRIĆ wrote his sonata for solo violin for the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition and won. This means that this was a compulsory contemporary composition at this competition and was performed by numerous promising young concert violinists around the world. The first Slovene to record it was the violinist Igor Ozim. The composer used a deliberate motif construction to create a perfectly designed homogeneity and to bring out the exceptional sound
dimensions of the instrument by setting a high technical standard of playing.
ERNEST BLOCH, the Swiss-American composer from the first half of the last century is the only foreign representative on my CD. He dedicated his rarely performed Suite No. 1 for solo violin from 1958 to the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. The composition is based on the Neo-Baroque principle of sonata da chiesa with four contrast movements, which amalgamate from one into another without any breaks. Bloch modernised the hidden two voices mode in one
instrument by using bitonality.
Compositions:
1.) Črt Sojar Voglar: Sonatina for violin solo 6.42
Nenad Firšt: Letters
2.) 1. stavek 3.50
3.) 2. stavek 3.25
4.) 3. stavek 1.55
5.) Nenad Firšt: Something wild 3.37 (listen!)
6.) Peter Kopač: Sonetuda for violin solo 12.38
7.) Ivo Petrič: Sonata for violin solo 13.26
Ernst Bloch: Suite for violin solo No. 1 (1958)
8.) 1.stavek/ Prelude 2.46
9.) 2. stavek/ Andante Tranquillo 3.23
10.) 3. stavek/ Allegro 2.49
11.) 4. stavek/ Allegro energico 2.42
