SILHOUETTES

Classical and Modern Music

Format: Digitalno

Code: 116971

EAN: 3838898116971

The album by violinist Lalita Svete entitled Silhouettes, released in cooperation with Radio Slovenia - Program ARS contains the compositions: Partita for Violin Solo and Sonata for Violin Solo, No. 2 (Silhouettes) by Tomaž Svete, Ciaccona by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonata in d-minor, No. 3, Op. 27 (Ballade) by Eugene Ysaÿe and Sonata in f-minor, no. 1, op. 80 by Sergei Prokofiev.

Commentary on the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Eugène Ysaÿe and Sergei Prokofiev

My deep admiration for the Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s oeuvre began in my early years, when I first listened to his sonatas, partitas and violin concertos. On turning ten, my father gifted me Bach’s set of six sonatas and partitas for solo violin, accompanied with a spur to action: “A ten-year old prodigy has performed the notoriously difficult Chaconne.” I hastily opened the score and practiced for hours on end. Although I was not yet sufficiently intellectually mature and lacking in both technique and a thorough understanding of melodic and harmonic lines, the hours flew by and I pushed myself to dive deeper into the universe of Bach’s genius. Aged twenty-three, I decided to master and record the Ciaccona, the last movement from the D minor partita. Built as a multilayered set of variations, the title was purposefully written in Italian, as opposed to the other movements in this composition. To learn one of the most remarkable and monumental pieces ever written for the violin has not only been a great challenge but has also given me an opportunity to reflect on some essential, universal questions. How do I interpret a masterpiece that has been performed and recorded numerous times? How do I stay truthful to my inner voice but simultaneously acknowledge the composer’s style? I have gained some insight through historical performance practice but kept my approach to playing the Chaconne mostly intuitive. Almost two years later, while some of my questions may not yet be answered, I do know that it is magnificence and complexity that remain the very essence of the Ciaccona.

Over many centuries, Bach has continued to inspire numerous composers with his works, one of whom was Eugène Ysaÿe, a Belgian composer, violin virtuoso and pedagogue. Between 1923 and 1924, he completed his Six Sonatas for Violin Solo, Op.27 based on Bach’s sonatas and partitas. He devoted this work to the six contemporary virtuosos as a response to the deep affinity they held for their master, ensuring that each sonata reflects the personality and character of its dedicatee. Where Ysaÿe stands in relation to the violin technique of his predecessors, such as Henri Vieuxtemps and Henryk Wieniawski, as well as his devotion to Bach’s polyphonic lines and Baroque style, are evident in this set of work. His third sonata in d-minor, the so-called Ballade, was dedicated to the Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu. Its rhapsodic spirit unfolds in the progression of its single movement. Ysaÿe’s works have implemented themselves as an absolute necessity in the violin repertoire, and his “Ballade” has over the years become one of my favourite pieces to perform on stage.

The opus of the Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev had an enormous impact on my development as a young violinist. I admired his music from the very beginning of lessons with my violin professor and supporter of many years, Arkadi Winokurow, in Vienna. I was meticulously taught the Russian violin technique and began to better understand Russian culture. Out of Prokofiev’s notable repertoire for the violin, I have been deeply moved by his first Sonata in F minor for violin and piano, dedicated to the preeminent Soviet violinist David Oistrakh. His recordings have heavily influenced my musical expression as I have developed as a violinist. Although I first learned the sonata in 2018, there was still much work for me to do. Two years later, I decided to record this unique piece. Its significance has resonated ever since Prokofiev performed it as a newly-written work in Nikolna Gora to his friends David Oistrakh and Nikolai Myaskovsky, fellow composer. On hearing it, Myaskovsky uttered: “Genius work. Are you aware of what you have written?” Throughout his lifelong collaboration and friendship with the composer, Oistrakh understood the challenges inherent in performing his works. “Nothing can be left unnoticed, no melodic detail, no modulation. It requires the subtlest, fullest expression, meticulous, but not presumptuous, attentive and soulful execution of each intonation, as though it is a proclaimed chant. It is crucial to not allow even the smallest musical individualism. The best execution of Prokofiev’s music, as it is for all other good music, can be achieved, when the performer forgets himself.” Inspired by George Frideric Handel’s music, Prokofiev started to write his four-movement sonata in 1938. It was finally completed in 1946, after the Second World War. During his creative period in 1941, he was able to articulate five tendencies as key pillars of his artistic expression. First of all, to be an imitation of classicism or neoclassicism, secondly to search for an individual voice, as well as motor rhythm, lyricism and humour. All of his five basic lines are encompassed in his F minor sonata. In 1953, at the memorial concert of the late composer, Oistrakh chose to perform movements from Prokofiev’s violin sonata. Sergei Prokofiev’s artistry remains unattainable and Oistrakh could only ever speak of him in the highest terms. “Without any exaggeration,” so the violinist said, “no work, in the whole world and over many centuries, can compare to its level of beauty and depth.”

This album is dedicated to my teacher and friend Arkadij Winokurow. His advice, support and joy of life will continue to accompany my life's journey.

- Lalita Svete

Commentary on the works by Tomaž Svete

In the summer of 2009, I composed the Partita for Violin Solo, dedicated to my daughter, Lalita Svete. The work was first recognised as a competition piece at the 2010 Prima La Musica competition for young musicians. My personal artistic credo, reminiscent of Gustav Mahler’s symphonic work, is founded on the universal idea of the four elements by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus and underpins the fundamental scheme of this partita. While the first movement represents earth, the second fire and the third air, the fourth is an allusion to the form of Gavotte in the style of Christoph Willibald Gluck and Sergei Prokofiev. This work’s purpose was to set a framework for the development of the young violinist’s technical ability and musical talent.

Almost a decade later, in 2018, I commenced my endeavour of six sonatas for violin solo based on Eugène Ysaÿe’s work. Whilst the Partita had been written as a didactic aid for the young violinist, the second sonata, entitled Silhouettes, encouraged her in her search for profound expression in her artistic outlet as a proficient performer. My stylistic approach in the sonata surpassed the previous work in its superior technique, formal construct, search of nuance and rich timbre. Sustaining the formal arc of suspense within the single movement sonata can be a formidable task for those who interpret it. Divided into four sections, a long, sustained note initiates a parlando rapsodico that passes over into an adagio espressivo, reaching a climax at the end of its episode. A sequence of agitation in con giusto is followed by a lento misterioso, which is then interrupted by a brief passage of giocoso. Shortly after, the sonata is concluded with a simple C major chord.

- Tomaž Svete

Album content

T. Svete: Partita for Violin Solo

Introduzione

Tarantella

Aria

Tempo di Gavotta 

J. S. Bach: Ciaccona

T. Svete: Sonata for Violin Solo, No. 2 (Silhouettes)

E. Ysaye: Sonata in d-minor, No. 3, Op. 27 (Ballade)

S. Prokofiev: Sonata in f-minor, no. 1, op. 80

Andante assai

Allegro brusco

Andante

Allegrissimo - Andante assai, come prima

Piano: Evgenij Sinajski (8-11)

Lalita Svete

Considered one of the up-and-coming violinists of her generation, Lalita Svete is a laureate of several international competitions and was awarded the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund. The young artist devotes herself with the greatest commitment to a wide-ranging repertoire that encompasses all epochs from baroque to contemporary music. A particular attention is on world premieres of works by her father, the Slovenian composer, Tomaž Svete. Her interpretation of his Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra was a great success in Ljubljana in 2016. Furthermore, recordings of the violinist were broadcast on RTV Slovenia and BBC Radio 3.

Collaborations with orchestras such as the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra under the baton of En Shao and the Kiev Camerata have accompanied her musical path. She has performed in renowned concert halls, including the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, ORF Radiokulturhaus, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Malibran, Slovenian Philharmonic and Cankarjev Dom. In the summer of 2020, she made a guest appearance at the Carinthian Summer Festival in Austria.

Lalita Svete comes from a family of musicians and was born in Vienna in 1996. She received her first violin lessons at the age of four at the music school in Maribor, Slovenia. She made her debut in 2007 at the Lent Summer Festival. Same year, the young violinist was part of a concert series with the Zagreb Soloists in Croatia, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia, organised by the “Stiftung Musik & Jugend”.

Svete is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Boris Brovtsyn, where she also obtained her bachelor’s degree with distinction. She received further lessons with Arkadi Winokurow and Lidia Baich. At master classes with Vadim Gluzman and Rachel Podger, the violinist gathered numerous impulses. Since 2019, Svete has been playing on a Giovanni Battista Rogeri violin from 1687, provided to her by a private donor.