Juraj Hatrík – Impastamenti sottili

1-25 Fogli d ́album – impastamenti sottili / Sheets of Album – Delicate Fusions for cimbalom,
Orff-Schulwerk instruments and children ́s voices 35.18
26 Little One and Big One – Hand in Hand series of duets for little and big viola player, fragment 1.56
27-30 Four Intermezzi for piano
Crocodile and River Nile
Elise a Little Butterfly
Games Under Big Sun
The Butterfly
31-32 Hommage à Hesse
Beharrlichkeit des Herzens / Heart ́s Endurance – Spruch / Sentence
diptych for alto, viola and cimbalom 10.46
33 Little One and Big One – Hand in Hand fragment 1.19
34-35 Sorgset sjunger fågeln / Bird is Sadly Singing canzona quasi una fantasia per mano sinistra 12.00
36 Ad matrem… (The Noon) 5.48
37 Hermann Hesse: Sentence 0.23

Enikö Ginzery, cimbalom (1-25, 31-32) – František Pergler, piano (27-30, 35, 36) – Petra Noskaiová, mezzosoprano (32, 34) – Ivan Palovič, viola (26, 31-33), Veronika Prokešová, viola (26, 33) – Martina Mestická, flute (36) – Juraj Šušaník, Vladimír Sawicz, batteria (1-25) – Štefan Bučko, declamation (37) The Bratislava City Choir, cond. Ladislav Holásek (36) – Slovak Radio Children ́s Choir, cond. Branko Ladič (25)

Recorded in the Concert Hall Dvorana, VŠMU Bratislava, 16.-23.11.2013. © Juraj Hatrík. Recording engineer: Rostislav Pavlík. Commentaries: ©Tatiana Pirníková, Eva Čunderlíková. Translation: Kamil Mihalov. Cover picture: Scenic creation of Sky-high Father – Wide Mother in Kežmarok. Picture of linden: Tony Štefunko. Image: Milan Adamčiak: Merry Seaman Songs (Veselé námornícke pesničky). With financial support of Ministry of Culture SR. Production and Distribution: PAVLÍK RECORDS, Slovakia, EU

A man walks the world and asks: „Who am I? Who summoned me here? What is my purpose, what should be left after me?“ He seeks answers everywhere – he finds them in everyday being, they come after touches of both, banality as well as sacral, they are imprinted in his face. The artist has got two faces. One of his own, humanlike, the other even more innate, shaped through his creation. It is sometimes mixed up, stylized and perplexed, the other time knowingly pompous, impersonal, however in fortunate instances internally felt, such as it does not let the other way, but read the world this very manner. „Arbitrariness in arts is not possible, for there absolute values and universal principles exist… The art is the art as long as it is the journey towards them“ (R. Berger).
Delicate Fusions… Cantabile… Heart’s Endurance… Bird is Sadly Singing… Hesse‘s „Sentence“… Little One and Big One – Hand in Hand… Heyduk‘s „Noon“… With memories whispering Linden… Ad matrem… Images, although miniature, not minor – sensitive but not sentimental. Being created independently, yet in the logic of entire project they represent and constitute a higher meaning. Messages for the man about essence of humanness, captured into an artistic expression such way, that listening the music could be at the same moment the state of contemplation. Because „to miss and not to catch what the time commands, means failure…“
(M. Rúfus)
The project collected of different cast chamber pieces „Impastamenti sottili – Delicate Fusions“ opens to a listener a curious imaginative space of musical ideas, impressions, desires, memories, legacies and experiences of the composer Juraj Hatrík, which is possible – Rúfus-like put – to enter more „by heart“ than „by foot“. And as a poet says, this place is childhood land to him, it is not far from composer‘s intention, which is ahead of the auditor. Hatrík, concentrated in a long term on the infantine element present in life as well as arts, offers his partnership with the adulthood and maturity. He observes the nature of child‘s world and seeks the concepts to feel this element in composition, how to capture, embody it. He follows urges of his own core; by the effort to interpret simplified, gestic, symbolic, but at the same moment he reacts on nowadays pragmatism and rationalism, which often conceal or negate real human values. He relies to the power of personal memory, he is touched by its inner subtlety. He pronounces the admiration of the wisdom. He pursues a dialog, a partnership. To an adult he invokes a child, whose joy, energy and naturalness inspires him. He inserts his rich experience with the vim of metaphoric image, with its potential versatility and submerged empathy, into the focus of the very musical structure. That all with the belief, that the Music is the language with universal potential to be accepted, understood. Hatrík does that not by accident; he leans on non-musical inspirations and impulses, which are in his creation permanently present and integrated into musical form. Especia- lly the interconnection of music and word, which is generously applied in this project, guarantees its authenticity resulting from the fact, that in the centre of Hatrík‘s interest is always Human with his Humanity… „And although he is neither historian nor prophet, there is the both in his music, history as well as future“ (V. Godár).
Peculiarity, talked out through intimacy of strait expression, brings the essence, which an open-eared listener can merge in, to devote, to understand. With the belief, that a message of a sentient human will be equally valued and universal in every upcoming era… Tatiana Pirníková

Juraj Hatrík finds a need of touch as the one of his most important necessities. An immediate contact with a human he intends to understand. As a composer he wishes not only to address the audience but also to achieve harmony, a symphony of reflections and sensations, unity… Pieces included in the CD represent a selection of different kinds of connections and penetrations, which are perhaps the most characteristic manifestation in his creation: from gentle contacts in common generating of musical gestures in miniature poetic images (which titles are made up by children) in the composition-project Fogli d´album – impastamenti sottili (Sheets of Album – Delicate Fusions) in cooperation with mature cymbalist and children (1st Cabinet – Touches) gradually builds through more and more narrower connections (2nd Cabinet – Fusions) and fade-overs (3rd Cabinet – Cantabile); likewise in the series of duets for minor and major viola player Little One and Big One – Hand in Hand, where „…it is mainly about firm and friendly holding hand of a child with whom we stride toward music together…“ (J. Hatrík). In both pieces emerges an evident although not straightforwardly declared pedagogic intention: to allow a full participation of a child in creating „the grand“ music, that is on the level of its current abilities and skills.
We can follow composer’s significant „unity in variety“ on the higher level in Four Intermezzi: an inspiration by the world of juvenile rhymes, which motives, „musical seeds“ he develops, wires up, shapes into a new quality. In the composition Crocodile and River Nile, there is hidden melody of a tune of his own rhyme: „Crocodile lost his trail, he does not know where is Nile… / Crocodile got it clear: Nile is lost it disappeared… With the razzle-dazzle, skipped to sea of gravel…“ etc. In the piece Elise a Little Butterfly, there are two „seeds“, as if „wind-carried“ from another compositions: beside figurative fragment from Beethoven’s Für Elise, it is the author’s alike titled rhyme-riddle from a cycle I am not a Man, I do Live, Though: „Pretty little wings, not much of a head, pretty little wings has“ on the traditional lyrics. Formation of intermezzo Games under Big Sun was inspired by rhyme-riddle: „I‘m the one, who I am and I‘m not the one, who I am. If I were the one, who I am, I would not be the one, who I am“. Hatrík has connected his own theme on the text of this archaic Latin conundrum („Ego sum is, qui sum ed non sum is, qui sum; si essem is, qui sum, non essem is, qui sum“) with another Slovak folk riddle motive from his cycle Sky-high Father – Wide Mother: „Over the vast seas a golden plate floats…“. At the end The Butterfly, which had flied from a cocoon few decades ago in a land of Right-Eared Dwarfs and meanwhile occurred in a number of the other composers works, flies to the sky…
An inspiration, sometimes a fusion, with literary lines are present in the other works, as well. For sure the two poetical figurations (H. Hesse, A. Heyduk) and a content related Slovak folk song from Gemer, they are not there just by coincidence. Being older and after a difficult period of health problems the composer is touched by texts full of misery and reconciliation, but also of nostalgic evaluation of (either fulfilled or not) desires and remote goals. „Sadly sings little bird into cages put, when he reminisces free verdant small wood…“ is sung in a folk song, as it were incipit of piano phantasy Bird is Sadly Singing. It is dedicated to present-day Swedish poet, Nobel prize literature 2011 winner Tomas Tranströmer (a friend of Milan Rúfus), who has been a gifted pianist, but after a stroke he lost his ability to play both hands. The same narrative power is in the other two works Hommage à Hesse and Ad matrem… The first one, as a reaction on the lines by German writer close to Hatrík, the second one, on randomly found Czech romantic poet Anton Heyduk manuscript. He discovers the poem Noon… by his mother’s favourite poet two years after she passed away in the convent „Golden Crown“: „A village calm in the time of noon, every soul rests in quiet, but linden at the courtyard, dangles with her olden treetop… Each of leaves does croon something and keeps rustle and whisper – one who yet believes in joy, shall make sense from out that all.“ However, the breath of his pilgrimage ending approaching – the death which threatened the composer in the first decade of a new millennium, he did not recast to menacing, by despair or fear affected message, but it became an impulse of conciliation, atonement and hope.
Eva Čunderlíková/Translation: Kamil Mihalov

This CD meets prestigious and young upcoming artists, as well.
Enikö Ginzery focuses her interpretative art on presenting a cimbalom as the full-fledged concert instrument. She studied in Bratislava, Budapest and Saarbrücken. She is active in the fields of solo and chamber music concert playing, as well as she cooperates with orchestras. Since 1995 she regularly gives concerts in Europe and the USA. The broad scale of her repertoire involves pieces from Middle Ages to Recent Epoch. She frequently premieres works by contemporary Slovak and foreign authors (app 50).
František Pergler is an experienced solo and also chamber pianist. He appeared on a number of European stages as a soloist or chamber music partner, he also produced several CD recordings. He is a long-acting four-hands piano player with Ida Černecká, with whom they represent high international level of artistry. He is devoted to Hatrík´s piano compositions with the grand mastery in its whole genre range – from the pieces for children and youth to the most demanding solo works.
Petra Noskaiová is specialized to baroque and renaissance music interpretation. In cooperation with many ensembles (e. g. La Delicate Bande, Huelgas Ensemble, VocaMe…) she takes part in international festivals in Europe, America and Asia and records for many European companies. She appeared in performances of National Theatre in Prague during 3 seasons. Along with performing pieces by old masters she carries on presenting the pieces by Slovak and foreign contemporary composers.
Ivan Palovič is concentrated on chamber repertoire, solo viola literature, he also gained experience as an orchestral instrumentalist. He is a member of a number of international groups. With his sister, a pianist Jordana Palovičová, they perform as the permanent chamber duo. He has collaborated with Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF, for which, as a member of Ghega Quartet ensemble, he accomplished several audio-recordings as well as a TV documentary in 2004.
The Bratislava City Choir was established in 1971. In 1977 Ladislav Holásek became its conductor and artistic director, with whose name is connected not only the history of renowned Slovak vocal groups (Slovak Philharmonic Choir, Slovak National Opera, Slovak Madrigals), but also outstanding and rich interpretative experience and wide repertoire range.
Slovak Radio Children’s Choir in Bratislava acts on the scene of Slovak culture for 60 years. Originally founded by a composer and conductor Ondrej Francisci, since 2004 led by Adrián Kokoš. The Choir has recorded more than 500 songs, cycles for radio broadcasting, several CDs and brought up lots of prominent artists since its constitution. It regularly performs and records premieres by Slovak and worldwide composers.