This violin and piano featured two Polish ladies who had already performed together. The violinist came over from Poland while the pianist lives in Malta and Gozo for her performances either as solo pianist or as accompanist.

The choice of works reflects the patriotism of the of five 19th century composers. Two are Czech: Bedřich Smetana (1824-84) the Father of Czech music and the no less ardent patriot Antonín Dvořak (1841-1904). The Poles were Aleksander Zarzycki (1864-95) born in Lviv, then known as Lwow and a Polish island in a Ukrainian sea. Typical of many Poles he was born under Austrian rule, studied under Prussian(German) rule and settled in Warsaw which was under Russian control. The Czechs were under Austrian rule but Poland had been partitioned by its three very greedy, cynical neighbours.

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-49) was born in the short-lived Grand Duchy of Warsaw under Napoleonic and Saxon control, later under the returning Russians, left in 1830 shortly before the ill-fated rebellion of 1831, and never returned. Henryk Wieniawski (1835-80) was from Lublin, also in Russian Poland.

All these composers were fervent patriots. The best way they could show their distress and defiance was by using their native countries’ rich folk inheritance, echoes of which underline their work. They chafed under their foreign rulers. Prague was bombarded in 1848 and the Poles were suppressed again after the failed rebellion of 1863.

They had to wait for freedom until the collapse of the three empires when the latter lost out in 1918.

Meanwhile poets, artists and composers voiced their dissent and defiance with their work. This was the age of growing nationalism and it was impossible for the rulers to completely stamp it out.

The first work performed this evening was the Romance in F minor (1873) by Dvořak. I consider him as the Czech Schubert: for the immensely rich melodic vein which underlies his work. He also had a knack to dress up his music by weaving into it the rhythm and colour of the Bohemian and Moravian national idiom. The flavour of it is such that his music is immediately recognisable. No less in this lovely work which bears little connection to a single movement from a discarded string quartet. Its lush melody says it all and was superbly performed

The first Polish composer’s music to appear next was Zarzycki’s Mazurka n.1, in G Major,

Op. 26 (1884).. As Chopin and other fellow Poles did, Zarzycki used the mazurka rhythm (mazurek to the Poles) in this work. The mazurka is a folk dance from Mazovia, Poland’s central region. Here we could hear a work which having been dedicated to the great Sarasate, had its fair share of virtuoso passages.

Back to the Czech world of Smetana, always synonymous with his 6-cycle symphonic poem Má Vlast (My Land) composed in 1872-79. In 1880 he composed Z domoviny, J.118 (Homeland) an original work for violin and piano. There lies the difference with the better known Má Vlast. Both N.1 in A Major, and N.2 in G minor, are imbued with the same patriotic fervour. However Z domoviny is of a more intimate and very private work. In fact Smetana preferred to have performed privately at intimate gatherings rather than in a concert hall. Much as one should TRY to respect the composer’s wish, this impeccable rendition made it worthwhile giving it to an appreciative audience

Wieniawski’s Legende, 0p. 17 (1859) was the first of his works I ever heard. It is a labour of love this time for his wife, to whom he dedicated it. The legend inspiring it could have been an old Polish tale, thus he fulfilled a double purpose: his national heritage and personal marital love.

The work began with a murmuring in the piano and the work gradually developed into a passionate statement which was repeated in slightly different form then built up to a grand climax and receded back to that soft murmuring which ended the work.

Chopin glorified his national musical heritage by composing his many mazurkas and polonaises, a Krakowiak for piano and orchestra and a Fantasy on Polish Airs also for piano and orchestra; not to mention his four epic ballads. He also composed many waltzes but these were not danceable like the Viennese waltz, at which he turned his delicate nose. His Grande Valse Brilliante in E flat Major Op. 18 is one of his best known.

The duo performed an arrangement for violin and piano by the Australian violinist Simon Fischer (b.1956). “Ballabile” or not it was a really charming hit and exquisitely performed.

The concert closed with another Wieniawski work: the Polonaise Brilliante N.2 in A Major, Op.21 (1870). The polonaise (poloneza) is believed to have had royal and aristocratic origins in Court circles. Stately and elegant it automatically evokes a lot of “Polishness”. Compared to its predecessor this particular A Major work is considerably more difficult. It is very expansive and in its brief eight minutes packs in brilliance, lyricism and virtuoso prowess all of which was forthcoming.

Thank you Justyna and Julia. You are a marvellous team!

Albert George Storace