Sonates Tchèques Pour Alto Martinu Feld Kalabis Husa Fialova Ardasev - Su4211

Mal aimé des instruments à cordes, l’alto ne bénéficie pas d’un répertoire aussi étendu que le violon ou le violoncelle. Néanmoins, les compositeurs du XX° siècle ne l’ont pas négligé et lui ont attribué de nombreuses œuvres majeures : Bartok, Chostachovitch, Hindemith, Walton notemment ont contribué à le réhabiliter. L’intérêt de ce superbe disque Supraphon est de regrouper quatre pages de grands maîtres tchèques toutes écrites après la 2° guerre mondiale. Le lyrsime généreux de Martinu, le grand aîné, s’exprime dans sa superbe sonate (1955). Légèrement antérieure, la suite de Karel Husa (1945) est un petit bijou tandis que les sonates de Feld (1955 comme celle de Martinu) et Kalabis (1997, un grand quart d’heure de musique d’un seul tenant), gravées en première mondiale seront de belles découvertes. On ne peut que saluer la somptueuse et envoûtante interprétation de Kristina Fialova, sur un spuperbe Testore à la sonorité chaude et généreuse. Un disque magnifique pour sortir des sentiers battus. (Richard Wander)

Kristina Fialová’s Supraphon debut will undoubtedly be a welcome treat for lovers of the velvety dark timbre of the viola. A gauntlet thrown down to previous recordings can be deemed her singular account of Bohuslav Martinu’s wistful Sonata for Viola and Piano (1955), one of the pieces in which, towards the end of his life, the composer, aware that he would never return to his homeland, ever more frequently reflected his nostalgia for his native Czech--Moravian Highlands region. The other three works featured on the CD are virtually unknown (two of them have been recorded for the very first time) yet nevertheless worthy of attention. Karel Husa wrote his Suite for Viola and Piano (1945) prior to leaving his country for good. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1969), today Husa’s is perhaps the most frequently performed music by a contemporary Czech composer worldwide. The featured works by two of his contemporaries too are newly discovered viola gems. The Sonata by Jindrich Feld is connected with that of Martinu’s in terms of the year of its origin (1955), as well as its nostalgia, while Viktor Kalabis created his piece almost half a century later (1997). A rising viola star, Kristina Fialová has won several international competitions, debuted at the Tonhalle Zürich and performed at prestigious festivals.