Violin Solo 3 – Milan Paľa

Violin Solo in the works of slovak composers

Peter Machajdík – Torqued Images
Iris Szeghy – Ciaccona , Slovak Dance
Pavol Malovec – Invocazione I , Invocazione II
Vladimír Bokes – Cadenza III, op. 63 , La Folia, Ciaconna, op. 3
Mirko Krajči – Sonata
Vladimír Godár – O Crux, Meditation , Sonata
Oľga Kroupová – Quintessenz
Hanuš Domanský – Dianoia

CD SIDE – CD AUDIO
DVD SIDE – DVD AUDIO
∗ ADVANCED RESOLUTION SURROUND SOUND 48 kHz/24 bit
∗ ADVANCED RESOLUTION Stereo SOUND 48 kHz/24 bit

Here’s the second part of an extensive project to make all the works of Slovak artists for solo violin, which interprets the unique way the young violin virtuoso Milan Pala.

Ethnologists say that there has not yet been a society in which music would not exist. Historians reveal the metamorphosis of the musical medium thanks to which the monumental music evolved from its simple beginnings. History of music shows that human did not get satisfied with this “status quo” but carried on searching for music the unknown, yet anticipated way into future. To follow this way people needed the means, the media of their thinking with the help of which they could discover new worlds; mathematics, that helped to define intervals and handle the musical time, rhetoric, which interconnected music with human emotionality. There were also musical instruments that linked mathematical-logical abstractions and psychological categories with the human body and its physiognomy. It was violin (firstly made in 16th century), that together with keyboard instruments, mostly increased the tempo of European music development. Gabrieli, Marini, Farina, Fontana, Uccellini, Tartini, Corelli, Vivaldi, but also Walther, Biber, Muffat, J. S. Bach or Franz Benda were those who, with the touch of hand on fingerboard and bow, discovered new and unknown dimensions for music and for people. They set off for their journey without a compass and were too often accompanied by general mockery and scorn of the layabouts. Violinist Milan Paľa has been a part of Slovak musical culture for a decade. I know no other Slovak musician who would be discovering new dimensions of music more passionately and intuitively and who would so hopefully try to open them for others too. When attending the Vienna lectures of Kurt Schubert about the history of Hebrews I heard him mention three attributes of prayer according to Hasidic Jews: object (what one prays for), subject (who one prays to) and relish. One can notice them all for the first hearing when listening to Milan Paľa playing the violin. The third CD of the Milan Paľa`s cycle Violin solo in the works of Slovak composers consists of twelve works by the eight Slovak composers born between 1944 and 1968 – the three generations of composers creating in 70s (Domanský, Bokes), 80s (Szeghy, Godár, Malovec) and 90s (Machajdík, Kroupová, Krajči) of the previous century. The works were composed between 1967 and 2010 and contain four cyclic compositions – two sonatas for violin solo by Godár and Krajči, Dianoia by Domanský and Torqued Images by Machajdík, and eight compositional monoliths. Amongst the works presented on this CD are those trying to create the bridge of associations with the extramusical, sometimes even mystical ideas (Bokes, Malovec, Kroupová), those linked with other artistic media (Machajdík) and also those trying to create the dialogue between already existing musical models (La Folia by Bokes, Szeghy, Godár`s Sonáta). We can also distinguish between those compositions in which is used consistent realization of the compositional idea (Bokes, Sonata by Krajči, Kroupová) and those in which is preffered the fantasy of the solution (Domanský, Malovec). The predominating element of this CD is the orientation of the violin monologues to meditation (Domanský, Godár`s O Crux, Slovak dance by Szeghy, Malovec, Kroupová). The most used compositional techniques are variations that could also be understood as a honour to the three violin-composition-titans of Baroque (Bokes – La Folia with the Corelli model, Godár – passacaglia with the model of H. I. F. Biber and Szeghy – Ciaccona with the model of J. S. Bach, Krajči – variations on B-A-C-H)

Vladimír Godár

Published with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic