Download DUX 0932 / 2014 Katarzyna BUDNIK – GALAZKA

DUX 0932 / 2014
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Katarzyna BUDNIK – GALAZKA - viola recital
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Max REGER :
* Suite in G minor Op.131d No.1
* Suite in D major Op.131d No.2
* Suite in E minor Op.131d No.3
Aram KHACHATURIAN : Sonata-Song for Viola Solo
Krzysztof PENDERECKI : Cadenza for Viola Solo
Pierre RHODE : Caprice No.7
Niccolò PAGANINI :
* Caprice in A minor Op.1 No.24
* Sonata per la Grand’ Viola ed Orchestra in a transcription for Viola and Guitar
Katarzyna BUDNIK – GALAZKA – viola
Krzysztof MEISINGER – guitar
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DUX Małgorzata Polańska & Lech Tołwiński ul. Morskie Oko 2, 02-511 Warszawa
tel./fax (48 22) 849-11-31, (48 22) 849-18-59
e-mail: [email protected], www.dux.pl
Aleksandra Kitka-Coutellier – International Relations kitka@dux
There is much to indicate that the sound of the viola has fascinated composers for centuries.
However, when compared with the extensive repertoires for the violin and cello, the number of
works in which the viola is assigned the primary role is rather modest. One might gain the
impression that the most outstanding composers turned to the viola only when they wanted to
imbue their music with an expression of special depth. Both the last of Bach’s Brandenburg
Concertos and Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante are unique works which stand out even in the
context of these composers’ extraordinary output. Despite its special sound quality, the viola was
for centuries considered to be an instrument unable to shape the musical narration on its own.
The intensive development of violin technique during the Baroque period did not bring in its wake
a similar trend in the case of other string instruments. The cello underwent some attempts to
emerge as an independent instrument, notably in Bach’s six solo suites. It is difficult to find
reasons why Bach, while performing the duties of master of music at the court in Cöthen, did not
pen any compositions for solo viola, alongside those for solo violin and cello. This is all the more
surprising, as we know today, that whenever there was an insufficient number of musicians in his
ensemble Bach himself used to play viola da braccio, which is a type of viola placed on the arm. It
is interesting to note that, excluding pieces intended for teaching purposes (such as capriccios by
Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Bartolomeo Campagnoli), the tradition of composing for solo viola
did not start until the twentieth century. Even the most eminent composers of previous periods
proved helpless when faced with the very peculiar timbral features of the instrument and
ultimately shunned the risk of using just the viola to fill the entire musical space of a composition.
Perhaps they were discouraged by their inability to use higher and lower registers?
The first attempts to use the viola as an independent instrument are attributed to Max Reger, the
German composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who is associated primarily with
organ music. Few people remember that his output also comprises numerous chamber works and
four cycles of solo compositions (Op. 131). The latter, alongside pieces for violin and cello, include
three Suites for solo viola. Almost all of Reger’s compositions exhibit his predilection for rich,
polyphonic textures, which were ideally realized in his organ works. In his pieces for string
instruments, including the suites for solo viola, it is manifested in the use of chordal technique and
extended sequences of double stoppings. It seems that the lyrical elements are deliberately
constricted in order to attain greater formal precision. Reger’s penchant for meticulous
construction had its roots in his fascination with Baroque counterpoint, particularly in the music of
Bach. The very idea of writing suites for string instruments ordered as a cycle seems to be
a reference to Bach. Sections which clearly draw on dance forms (gigue, minuet, even mazurka)
merit special attention.
In addition to Reger’s suites, the present CD contains a selection of works which constitute the
staple repertoire for solo viola. Aram Khachaturian’s Sonata-Song is the composer’s last work,
written shortly before his death, a fact which surely shaped its extraordinary character. The
musical narration is jagged and diverse and the sound idiom, even in the context of today’s avantgarde experiments, seems difficult.
Krzysztof Penderecki’s Cadenza appears to be more accessible. It was written on the basis of
material from the composer’s popular Viola Concerto. The linear development of musical events in
this miniature is contained in a freely shaped, albeit tightly-knit, reprise form.
The never-ending tendency to explore the instrument’s expressive potential has encouraged viola
players to turn to the more technically demanding violin repertoire. The present recording features
two transcriptions, including that of Paganini’s Caprice No. 24, the last in his cycle of breakneck
violin etudes. The CD is rounded off with one more composition by the legendary violin virtuoso,
Sonata per la Grand Viola. This was Paganini’s response to what he viewed as another composer’s
failed attempt to assign to the viola a truly leading role in orchestral texture. Hector Berlioz’s
symphony Harold in Italy did not prove sufficiently showy and spectacular, dissuading Paganini
from performing it in public but provoking him to continue his own explorations.
The present CD seems to prove the correctness of such creative explorations, as the result of
which the viola has to be recognized today as a universal instrument of diverse colours, one that
is able on its own to open before us a soundworld of great richness.
Marcin Zdunik
Katarzyna BUDNIK-GAŁĄZKA
She is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where he studied the
violin with Mirosław Ławrynowicz, Andrzej Gębski and Janusz Wawrowski as well as the viola with
Piotr Reichert. She is currently an assistant in the viola class at her Alma Mater. She has won First
Prizes at the 47th Beethoven Hradec Musical Competition in the Czech Republic (2008), the 15th
Johannes Brahms International Competition in Pörtschach, Austria (2008) and the 8th Jan
Rakowski National Viola Competition in Poznań (2008). Her successes also include Second Prizes
at the Max Rostal International Competition in Berlin (2009), the Max Reger International
Chamber Music Competition in Sondershausen, Germany (2009; also a special prize for the best
performance of Max Reger’s suite for viola solo) and the 4th Michał Spisak International
Competition in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland (2010, also a special prize for the best performance of
a compulsory piece). September 2013 she gained 3st Award at the ARD Competition in Munich. As
a soloist and chamber musician she has given concerts in Poland and several other European
countries (the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, France, Russia). In 2010 she participated in the
Chamber Music Connects the World project, organized by the Kronberg Academy, where she
performed along with such distinguished musicians as Gidon Kremer, Tatyana Grindenko, Yuri
Bashmet and Frans Helmerson. She has performed at many prestigious festivals, including the
Music Festival in Łańcut, the International ‘Music on the Heights’ Chamber Music Festival in
Zakopane and the Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus (to which she was invited by Gidon Kremer). She
has held grants from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the ‘Young Poland’
programme in recognition of her high-calibre artistic achievements.
Krzysztof MEISINGER – in the opinion of many critics and music lovers from around the world,
Krzysztof Meisinger is one of the most fascinating and charismatic young classical guitar players.
Such teachers and music authorities as Bolesław Brzonkalik, Piotr Zaleski, Aniello Desiderio (Italy)
and Christopher Parkening (USA) have had the immense influence on his artistic development. He
is the winner and laureate of many national and international competitions. He has held grants
from the Polish Minister of Culture, the Mayor of the city of Bydgoszcz, the KGHM ‘Polska Miedź’
Foundation and the ‘Młoda Polska’ (Young Poland) Scholarship Programme. He regularly gives solo
recitals and appears in chamber music concerts and with orchestras, in Poland and abroad (the
United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, Serbia, Austria, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Italy,
Latvia, Ukraine). He has performed in such venues as the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, the Witold
Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio, Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo (USA), Raitt Recital Hall
in Malibu (USA), the Lysenko Hall of the Ukrainian National Philharmonic in Kiev, Grossmunster in
Zurich, the Adam Mickiewicz University Hall in Poznań, the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Royal
Palace in Wilanów, the Royal Łazienki Park in Warsaw, the Ballroom of Łańcut Palace, Chopin’s
Manor in Duszniki and the Oratorium Marianum of Wrocław University. He has worked with the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Amadeus Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra, the
Philharmonia Quartet Berlin, the Chamber Orchestra of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the
Symphony Orchestra of the Ukrainian National Philharmonic, the Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra
of Wrocław and Capella Bydgostiensis, under the baton of Agnieszka Duczmal, José Maria
Florêncio, Massimiliano Caldi and other prominent conductors. His CD for the Orfeus label,
recorded together with the Polish soprano Iwona Hossa, was nominated for the 2011 Fryderyk
Award, the most prestigious music award in Poland. The other one, entitled ‘Melodia Sentimental’
and recorded in 2013 for Outhere Music in the famous Abbey Road Studio with the Academy of St
Martin in the Fields under José Maria Florêncio, contains a selection of works by Heitor Villa-Lobos.