Musical nationalism flourished in the 19th and early 20th century as composers, reacting to the Germanic-European classical tradition, embraced local folk music and brought its elements into the concert hall. Notable examples include the works of Jean Sibelius of Finland, Spain’s Enrique Granados and Isaac Albéniz, Charles Ives of the United States, and Czechoslovakia’s Antonín Dvorák and Leos Janácek. In this, Janácek followed the lead of Dvorák’s intense study of Moravian and Slavic folk music. As a young child, Janácek was a gifted keyboard player and singer. He studied composition at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1879 and wrote most of his best known works in his later years. Operas such as The Cunning Little Vixen (1924), his string quartets and his rhapsody for orchestra, Taras Bulba, are mainstays of the repertoire.

Janácek’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, completed in 1921, is in four movements, each constructed with a very individualistic approach. The first movement, Con moto, opens with the violin that leads directly to a legato melody atop a rumbling piano accompaniment. The piano then takes over the melody, accompanied by plucking in the violin. The first movement is compact within the traditional first-movement form of Sonata-Allegro. The second movement, Ballad, is striking it its brilliant atmosphere with sparkling gestures in the right hand of the piano combined with a lyrical melody of the violin and booming, low pitches in the left hand of the piano. Janácek introduces folk inspiration with "color" notes in the violin melody that may sound jazz-inspired upon first listening. In a brilliant role-reversal towards the end of the movement, the violin plays the shimmering material that was first in the piano, while the piano plays the lyrical melody. The beautiful movement ends softly in the extreme upper register of the violin. The third movement, Allegretto, is a Scherzo and Trio. The opening is harsh in its combination of trills in both the violin and piano and rushing scalar material. Janácek provides a contrasting Trio section in the middle of the movement that is reminiscent of a folk song in its simplicity. The movement closes with a restatement of the opening material. The fourth and final movement is quite enigmatic. It features beautiful, lyrical writing in the piano with short, pointed, insistent interruptions in the violin. The shimmering accompaniment returns near the end of the work where the violin finally presents lyrical, melodic material. The harsh violin interruptions close the work, leaving a very mysterious atmosphere.

Program Notes are by Kyle Blaha, a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at The Juilliard School and faculty member in the Juilliard Pre-College and Evening Division.