Eduard NÁPRAVNÍK: Chamber Music, Volume One: Music for Violin and Piano
The Czech-born Eduard Nápravník (1839–1916) became one of the pivotal figures in the musical life of nineteenth-century Russia: as conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera in St Petersburg, he gave the premieres of some of the most important Russian operas, among them Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov, six by Tchaikovsky and nine by Rimsky-Korsakov. But his own music has largely been lost from sight – a fate it emphatically does not deserve, as these three works for violin and piano prove: big-hearted and big-boned, replete with passionate Tchaikovskian melody, they reveal a composer ripe for rediscovery.
Lana Trotovšek, violin
Ludmil Angelov, piano
First Recordings
Listen To This Recording:
-
Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 52 (1890)
- I Andante sostenuto – Allegro
- II Scherzo: Vivace – Meno mosso – Tempo di Scherzo
- III Andantino doloroso
- IV Allegro con fuoco
- I Molto moderato – Allegro moderato
- II Scherzo. Allegro vivo
- III Elegie. Molto moderato
- IV Tarantella. Vivace
- No. 1 Nocturne
- No. 2 Valse-caprice
- No. 3 Mélodie russe
- No. 4 Scherzo espagnol
Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 60 (1896)
Four Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 64 (1898)
Fanfare :
‘Prepare for one of those rare musical experiences that transports you to a place where nothing else matters. […]
Nápravník’s violin sonata opens to the strains of a melody almost too beautiful to have been conceived without Divine intervention. If I were ranking such things, I’d say it’s at or very near the top of the list of the most beautiful melodies in existence. Once you hear it, you will never forget it. And providentially, this is one of those works that begins with a drop-dead gorgeous melody and goes on to fulfill its promise. […]
Nápravník’s Violin Sonata, dated 1890, is a close contemporary of a number of other, more celebrated violin sonatas of the time—Saint-Saëns’s D-Minor, Franck’s (1886), Strauss’s (1887), and Lekeu’s (1892), to cite four examples. Nápravník’s, in my opinion, belongs right up there with any of them. […]
The Suite for Violin and Piano and the Four Pieces for Violin and Piano are equally attractive, offering the violinist and the listener an ideal balance between heart-easing/heart-throbbing melody and virtuosic display. […]
Violinist Lana Trotovšek is as new and exciting a discovery for me as are these works by Nápravník. […] She is sweet of tone, secure of technique, and a weaver of magical spells. […]
The piano parts to these works are far from mere accompaniment. There is true equality in the writing for the two instruments. This is music for violin and piano, not violin with piano or piano with violin. Bulgaria-born pianist Ludmil Angelov is keenly aware of that, and assures that we are aware of it too in his assertive and authoritative playing. […]
This is an extraordinary, and indeed an exceptional, release, one that is headed straight for my 2020 Want List.’
—Jerry Dubins, Fanfare
Fanfare :
‘In their unchallenging way, these works offer plenty of pleasure…And if Nápravník doesn’t produce the kinds of melodies that stay in your head, they’re generally winsome as you’re listening. Certainly, this is a significant disc for anyone interested in the history of Russian classical music—or in the back roads of the late Romantic period more generally.’
—Fanfare