Various Composers - Pohádka (Laura van der Heijden; Jâms Coleman)

Information

1. Leoš Janáček - Pohádka, JW VII/5: I. Con moto
2. Leoš Janáček - Pohádka, JW VII/5: II. Con moto
3. Leoš Janáček - Pohádka, JW VII/5: III. Allegro
4. Zoltán Kodály - Cello Sonata, Op. 4: I. Fantasia
5. Zoltán Kodály - Cello Sonata, Op. 4: II. Allegro con spirito
6. Antonín Dvořák - Als die alte Mutter, Op. 55 No.4, B. 104, S. 73 (arr. Heijden)
7. Zoltán Kodály - Mért is mondod, hogy nem szeretsz, Op. post. No. 1 (arr. Heijden)
8. Zoltán Kodály - Vékony a pókháló, Op. 1 No. 9 (arr. Heijden)
9. András Mihály - Mouvement
10. Vítězslava Kaprálová - Navždy, Op. 12 No. 1 (arr. Heijden)
11. Zoltán Kodály - Cello Sonatina
12. Leoš Janáček - Violin Sonata in A flat minor, JW VII/7 (arr. Heijden): I. Con moto
13. Leoš Janáček - Violin Sonata in A flat minor, JW VII/7 (arr. Heijden): II. Ballada
14. Leoš Janáček - Violin Sonata in A flat minor, JW VII/7 (arr. Heijden): III. Allegretto
15. Leoš Janáček - Violin Sonata in A flat minor, JW VII/7 (arr. Heijden): IV. Adagio

Laura van der Heijden, cello

Jâms Coleman, piano

Date: 2022

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2020227

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Review

The idea for this disc arose from these performers’ shared love of Janáček’s music. Laura van der Heijden – 2012’s BBC Young Musician of the Year – and Anglesey-born Jâms Coleman have been performing together since 2018. Janáček’s delightful, multilayered triptych Pohádka (‘Fairy tale’, 1909 10), which opens the disc, formed part of their first duo recital. More crucially, their desire to play the Violin Sonata (1914, rev 1916 22) led van der Heijden to adapt, very adroitly, the violin part for the cello and provide a gripping close to their programme. In between lie Kodály’s wonderful duo Sonata (1909 10, a direct contemporary of Pohádka) and Sonatina (1909), Mihály’s gripping Mouvement of 1963 – honouring Kodály’s 80th birthday, though the date suggests he was a year late! – plus adaptations by van der Heijden of four songs by Dvořák, Kodály and Kaprálová. The works form an expressive arc travelling from innocence (Pohádka) to the chastened experience (via the Great War) of Janáček’s Sonata.

As a creative concept, it is carried through convincingly. The players clearly share a tangible musical understanding and rapport, and catch Pohádka’s ambivalent quality very neatly (after all, are not all fairy tales child-friendly glosses on darker terrors?). Their technical prowess comes to the fore in Kodály’s Sonata, the two movements of which contain a wealth of expression, albeit with no declared programme. The Mihály Mouvement is a challenge of an even greater kind – the composer was a cellist as well as being a fine conductor and composer – but both players take its formidable demands in their stride.

The song arrangements – straightforward adaptations of the vocal lines down an octave – make marvellous contrast, bringing different shades of light and lightness (as does the Kodály Sonatina) into a programme that might otherwise tend to shade, despite Chandos’s trademark rich sound. The performances are very fine throughout.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Mar/Pohadka-CHAN20227.htm

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/chamber/pohadka-tales-from-prague-to-budapest/

https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/laura-van-der-heijden-pohadka-tales-from-prague-to-budapest/14403.article

https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/pohadka-tales-from-prague-to-budapest-laura-van-der-heijden-jams-coleman/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/poh%C3%A1dka-tales-from-prague-to-budapest-mw0003648113

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Laura van der Heijden (born 7 April 1997 in West Sussex) is a British cellist. In 2005, she joined the junior department of the Royal College of Music, where she studied piano under Emily Jeffrey. She has been a pupil of Leonid Gorokhov since 2008. In 2019 Van der Heijden graduated from St John's College, Cambridge. She won the BBC Young Musician of the Year on 13 May 2012, where in the final round, she played William Walton's Cello Concerto with Kirill Karabits and the now Royal Northern Sinfonia. Van der Heijden currently plays on a late 17th Century cello made by Francesco Rugeri of Cremona.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_van_der_Heijden_(musician)

https://www.lauravanderheijden.uk/en

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From Anglesey, North Wales, Jâms Coleman is a pianist who enjoys performing as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist.

http://www.jamscoleman.com/

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