Kristina Fialova - Introduction (2016)

The virtuosic young Czech viola player Kristina Fialová presents contemporary and 20th-century works by Rózsa, Godár, Penderecki, Khachaturian, Stravinsky and Bodorová. Great performances of music by composers from middle and Eastern Europe.

Kristina Fialová’s refined taste matches up with her interpretive approach to the compositions selected and gives her temperament, natural virtuosity and emotionally engaged tone of her instrument an opportunity to shine…

The violist Kristina Fialová is gradually assuming a conspicuous place on the Czech musical landscape. This year, her first appearance at the Prague Spring festival attracted much interest and suggested a great deal about her experiences earned and successes celebrated abroad. Her studies in Copenhagen, Denmark paid dividends in the form of her debut album, musically directed by Tim Frederiksen, Professor at the Copenhagen Academy.

Unlike her maiden performance in May, when the works of contemporary composers were prefaced by J. S. Bach’s Sonata, the recording presents exclusively compositions by authors from the 20th a 21st century, some originally written for the viola, others later revised for the instrument by their respective authors. Kristina Fialová’s refined taste matches up with her interpretive approach to the compositions selected and gives her temperament, natural virtuosity and emotionally engaged tone of her instrument an opportunity to shine. The artist handles her instrument with consummate technical mastery and leaves her natural talent in no doubt.

The album opens with a piece by Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995), a Hungarian composer, who fled the war to Hollywood and his work there won much acclaim. Rózsa’s Introduction and Allegro bestowed its title on the whole album and, while doing so, introduced Kristina Fialová to the wide world of recording. Vladimír Godár (1956) studied at the Bratislava Conservatory and nowadays composes both classical music and film scores. His work O Crux-A Meditation was written in 1999, for violoncello, and subsequently (in 2006) revised for viola. Krzysztof Penderecki (1933) is a name more frequently encountered in concert programs and Fialová’s album features his Cadenza composed in 1984 (and performed at the violist’s Prague Spring debut concert this year), as well as his Sarabande, revised for the viola in 2006.

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) is also represented here, by his beautifully vaulted Sonata-Song written in 1976, shortly before the composer’s death, as is Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), by his Elegy from 1944, the only piece for viola he ever composed. Of the creative output of Sylvie Bodorová (1954), a popular contemporary Czech composer, her Dzha moreh has been included, a composition written in 1990 and inspired by Gypsy music; the composer revised it for Kristina Fialová, who presents the new version on her album as world-premiere recording. Krzysztof Penderecki’s Sarabande (J. S. Bach in memoriam) comes as something of a bonus, allowing the violist to interconnect her personal affinity to Penderecki with her admiration for the incomparable musical heritage of J. S. Bach.

The dramaturgical arch thus ascends from the outstanding interpretation of Miklós Rózsa’s composition, through the passionate, amazingly tuneful Sonata-Song of Aram Khachaturian, Stravinsky’s Elegy, presented with a marvelous depth of feeling, and the wide scope of emotions, tempers and melodiousness embodied in Sylvie Bodorová’s composition, all the way to the work of Penderecki, a veritable apex of contemporary art of composition presented here with completely engaged tunefulness in the main line as well as in the accompanying tones. The gentle conclusion of the composition leaves the listener with questions posed by the author and submitted masterfully by the interpreter, closing the album with a tender full stop.


Track List:
01. Miklós Rózsa: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 44
02. Vladimír Godár: O Crux (arr. for viola)
03. Krzysztof Penderecki: Cadenza (version for viola)
04. Aram Khachaturian: Sonata-pesnya for Solo Viola
05. Igor Stravinsky: Elégie (version for viola)
06. Sylvie Bodorová: Dža more (Gypsy Ballad) [Arr. for Viola]
07. Krzysztof Penderecki: Sarabande for Viola (J.S. Bach in Memoriam)

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