Ravel / Martinu / Honegger / Schulhoff: Duos for Violin and Cello

Featuring

Oleh Krysa
Torleif Thedéen
Maurice Ravel
Bohuslav Martinů
Arthur Honegger
Erwin Schulhoff

Did you know?

1/7

Composer Biography

Bohuslav Martinů, a Czech composer, began his career as a violinist with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra before moving to Paris at age 32 to seriously study composition with Albert Roussel.

Composition History

Bohuslav Martinů's Duo No. 1 for Violin and Cello, H.157, composed in 1927, was the first of his works to be released on a gramophone record.

Critical Reception

Ravel's Sonata for violin and cello was met with extreme disapproval at its 1922 premiere in Paris; the press described the audience's reaction as a 'massacre'.

Composition History

Maurice Ravel's Sonata for violin and cello, dedicated to Claude Debussy, was composed between 1920 and 1922, likely inspired by Debussy's own unfulfilled plans for a series of sonatas.

Performer Biography

Torleif Thedéen, one of Scandinavia's most celebrated cellists, gained international recognition in 1985 by winning three major cello competitions: the Hammer-Rostropovich prize, the Pablo Casals competition, and the EBU's Tribune for Young Interpreters.

Composer Biography

Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish composer from Prague, became a communist in reaction to Nazism, setting the Communist Manifesto to music as an oratorio and receiving honorary Soviet citizenship, which led to his arrest and death in a German concentration camp.

Composition History

Arthur Honegger's Sonatine for Violin and Cello (1932) was originally written for his friends Albert and Anna Neuburger, but the premiere was given by Honegger himself, with Darius Milhaud surprisingly playing the cello part.