 Sonata No. 1 by Aleksander Lason was premiered by Aureli Blaszczok in 1978, even before I was born. It was one of the first great successes of my father. Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski was enchanted: “This sonata has earned its place among the most important pieces of the genre! I dream of a concert and a CD, on which it would be presented among the masterpieces by Bach, Ysaÿe, or Bartók.” Since I got to know Sonata and the story related to it, I have also started to dream of recording this CD, hence such a constellation: Bach, Ysaÿe, Lason. Three epochs between which the composers create bridges, as if they wanted to shake hands. Is the small violin able to sustain a monumental form? This daredevil challenge was accepted by the composers of the German Baroque, which differentiated them from the Italians, who made the violin sing. A four-voice polyphony on four string? It sounds as a magic trick. However, this is what Johann Sebastian Bach did. His three sonatas (and three partitas) for violin are the crowning achievement of the epoch. Masterpieces. It could seem that the next generations would have followed in his footsteps, yet it was not the case. The world forgot his music. The audience became fascinated with another power – the orchestra. For almost the next 200 years, no fully-dimensional piece for solo violin was created! The return to the idea of a great violin sonata occurred only in the 20th century. Eugène Ysaÿe, called “The Tsar of the Violin,” composed his six sonatas during the Great War. He dedicated them to six great performers – his friends. Yet he created them as a tribute to Bach. Sonata No. 2 begins with a quotation from Johann Sebastian’s Partita No. 3 in E major. However, the next motif – brutalement – transfers us to the modernism. And again a return to Bach… The movements of the sonata are as follows: Obsession (Prelude), Malinconia (there is no additional description, but it is a Neo-Baroque siciliana), Danse des ombres (Sarabande), and Les furies. Old and new combined in one whole. In the background one can hear medieval motif Dies Irae – God’s wrath. Which is the reason for it: the horrors of war or the violence of changes in the modern art? Les furies reach out to Aleksander Lason’s Sonata. Its first movement is Allegro furioso. Then there is an uncommon density, energy. Thousands of sounds included in four movements, dispersed as stars in the galaxy. The violin becomes here an orchestra, the sonata – a symphony. Will the power of solo violin music return to us in its full glory?
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