Prima Sonata - Jan Novák

24. září 2009

Prima Sonata, a work belonging among Jan Novák's latest compositions, is dedicated to his wife, the pianist Eliška Nováková. There is a curious parallel between this piece and Bohuslav Martinů's First Sonata for piano that also was not followed by any other composition of such form for solo piano. Shaped in a conventional style, the three-movement Prima Sonata is a highly idiomatic and unique work of art, just as much as all the other piano composition by Jan Novák; though based on an identical musical language - identical to some extent, at least - they remain very different from one another and mutually incomparable.

Speaking from the point of view of an enthusiastic performer of the piano sonata, I admire the way the composer managed to unite the heavenly with the mundane within the composition; to speak of the spring buoyancy, the upheavals and blunders of human life as well as of the bright light of ethereal, eternal glory. All this is permeated with the author's well-balanced attitude towards life and its ephemerality; an attitude stemming from Novák's Christianity and his classical education. The pianist can partake in the maturity of this composition, and share with the composer the divine source of music. Dora Novak-Wilmington

Other compositions by Jan Novák published in Czech Radio:
Aeolia
Capriccio - score
Capriccio - piano score
Dido / piano score
Due preludi e fughe per flauto solo
Elegantiae tripudiorum
Elegantiae tripudiorum for Piano
IV Hymni christiani
Choreae vernales for Flute and Guitar
Choreae vernales for Flute and Piano
Choreae vernales for Flute, String Orchestra and Harp with Celesta or Piano
Odarum concentus choro fidium
Panisci fistula
Rotundelli
Scherzi pastorali for Clarinet (or Bass Clarinet) and Piano
Sonata brevis
Sonata da chiesa II for Flute and Organ
Sonata tribus
Sonatina for Flute and Piano
Strepitus festivi for Four French Horns
Tibia fugitiva
Toccata chromatica
Variations on the theme by Bohuslav Martinů

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