Andrei Bielow, Oliver Triendl - Dora Pejacevic: Violin Sonatas (2014)

Posted By: peotuvave

Date: Sept. 2, 2014

This installment is devoted to a third look at her chamber music, which, features stronly in the oeuvre of the brilliant Croatian countess.

Composer: Dora Pejacevic
Performer: Andrei Bielow, Oliver Triendl

Reviews: This is the fourth CD of Dora Pejacevic’s works to come my way in as many years, and this until recently virtually unknown Hungarian-born Croatian composer has turned out to be quite the discovery. Previous releases, all on CPO, have included her Symphony in F# Minor and Phantasie Concertante for Piano and Orchestra (35:2), a Piano Trio and Cello Sonata (35:3), and a String Quartet, Piano Quartet, and Piano Quintet (36: 6). Yet another CPO disc, of Pejacevic’s songs, went to Henry Fogel in 36:3.

Pejacevic(1885–1923) died young from complications following the birth of her first child. Had she lived a more normal lifespan, I suspect we’d have heard from her long before now; for though she produced only 58 documented works, everything I’ve heard so far convinces me that she would have come to be regarded as one of the early 20th-century’s major symphonists and chamber music composers. “Like another, earlier female composer, the French Louise Farrenc (1804–75),” I noted in my 35:2 review, “Pejacevic competed with the boys in the arena of large symphonic, concerted orchestral, and chamber works.”

Of course, she also wrote smaller, salon-type pieces, as did many composers of the period, and we have a number of them on this disc, namely the Canzonetta, Menuet, Romance, Élégie , and Meditation . But additionally, we have two very substantial violin sonatas, once again reinforcing my perception of Pejacevic as a significant composer of chamber music.

The First of Pejacevic’s two violin sonatas, composed in 1909, leads off with one of those arresting, unforgettable melodies that will stay in your head long after it’s over. But here’s what I find really interesting about it. Pejacevics biography tells us that she traveled briefly to Vienna and then lived for a time in Dresden and Munich, but nowhere do I find any indication that she ever visited France. Yet, the musical idiom of this Sonata bears a stamp as French as if it had been written by Fauré. The free-flowing outlines of that opening theme in the violin, with its fluid and unexpected harmonic turns in the piano have much in common with the French composer’s A-Major Violin Sonata of 1876.

Pejacevic herself was not a late-bloomer—she composed this Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Major, already her op. 26, at the age of 24—but as noted in a previous review, she was somewhere around 20 to 25 years behind the modern trends of her time. This, I believe, can be attributed to her physical remove from the main centers of where much of the action was happening in the first two decades of the 20th century, namely Paris and Vienna. Still, as long as you don’t hold the accident of geography against her, and you love gorgeous Romantic music, regardless of when or where it was written, Pejacevic’s works for violin and piano are guaranteed to give you great pleasure.

The Second Sonata in Bb Minor (a cruel choice of key for a violin piece) was composed in 1917, and carries the nickname “Slavic.” Normally, that term would lead one to expect music containing Czech or Russian folk elements, but Pejacevic’s Sonata doesn’t seem to, at least not in any recognizably obvious way. Koraljika Kos’s album note explains it thusly: “The composer lends her support to this idea more by way of declaration (the title of the work) than in the music itself. The individual folkloristic elements isolated from the context, such as the augmented seconds, open bourdon fifths, and simple dance rhythms, are multivalent and not merely specifically Slavic.” Indeed that’s true; the passage commencing at 3:45 in the second movement could just as easily suggest a Middle Eastern setting.

In overall style and approach, Pejacevic’s musical physiognomy hasn’t undergone a radical remake in the eight years that separate her two violin sonatas. There’s perhaps a bit more harmonic and rhythmic adventurousness in the later Sonata, and the violin part is somewhat more virtuosic and sounds more technically taxing (the key alone would present difficulties for any string player), but like her earlier D-Major Sonata, Pejacevic’s Bb-Minor opus is an alluring, ear-pleasing score. Both works are welcome additions to the violin-piano repertoire, which I would expect to be soon taken up by other players.

The remaining pieces on the disc are all short, salon-like encore numbers, described in the booklet as “miniatures.” Substitute a human voice for the violin in the Canzonetta , set it to words, and you’d have a very pretty song. The Romance is a bit less singable in some of its chromatic intervals, runs, and wide leaps, but it’s a perfect fit for its title. With its double stops, the Élégie is definitely not a vocal number, nor does it sound particularly lamenting; wistful and nostalgic is how I’d describe it; likewise the 1919 Meditation , the latest-written on this program. The only upbeat, up-tempo piece among this group of miniatures is the Menuet , a stately neo-Baroque sounding thing that reminds me a bit of the simulated “antique” style one hears in some of Saint-Saëns’s works.

Andrej Bielow is a Ukrainian who studied and settled in Germany, has soloed with a number of orchestras, and since 2005 has led the Szymanowski Quartet. I first heard him partnering with cellist Christian Poltéra and pianist Oliver Triendl in Pejacevic’s C-Minor Piano Trio. Bielow is a fine violinist who sounds very comfortable in and eminently well suited to these works. He doesn’t over-sentimentalize the salon pieces, but has a way of shading his tone from p down to pp that’s very touching. I can forgive him the occasional off-pitch note here and there in the Second Sonata, given the key it’s written in, which forecloses the use of open strings and entails awkward fingerings. Other than that, Bielow is technically secure and a pleasure to listen to throughout.

Oliver Triendl, a familiar chamber music partner on a number of CPO releases, is, as always, an outstanding coequal collaborator. Once again, another winner in the growing Pejacevic discography, and another strong recommendation.

Tracklisting:

01 - Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 26 - I. Allegro
02 - Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 26 - II. Andante con moto
03 - Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 26 - III. Allegro molto
04 - Canzonetta in D Major, Op. 8
05 - Menuet in A Major, Op. 18
06 - Romanze in F Major, Op. 22
07 - Elegie in E Flat Major, Op. 34
08 - Violin Sonata in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43, ''Slawische'' - I. Allegro con anima
09 - Violin Sonata in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43, ''Slawische'' - II. Adagio
10 - Violin Sonata in B-Flat Minor, Op. 43, ''Slawische'' - III. Allegro molto vivace
11 - Meditation, Op. 51

EAC

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