Ľubica Čekovská’s Violin Concerto was premiered on 15 September in Gera by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Thuringia conducted by Howard Arman with soloist Milan Pala. The piece is characterised by great intensifications and furious motor-rhythms.

“I was principally concerned with showing the beauty, the simple clarity of the violin sound.” In her Concerto for Violin and Orchestra composed in 2008/9, Ľubica Čekovská gives the solo instrument a striking call at the opening, which is immediately replicated in the orchestra. This evocative gesture reveals the violin as an expressive singing voice which is entwined throughout the entire piece in dialogue with the orchestra, until shortly before the end. In a cadence right at the end, the solo instrument is given the freedom to develop its virtuoso potential independently from the orchestra. Čekovská’s Violin Concerto is conceived as a great wave of intensification in three parts, with energetic outer movements and a slow central movement headed “Sognando, misterioso, triste”, an intensive sound study which is supported by an even pulsating. “The concerto is full of emotional tension. What was most important to me was to allow a rich harmonic development to unfold. At the same time, I like forms which accomplish a great intensification. Here the piece peaks in a furious, rhythmic, expressive music in the third movement.” The finale, “Ritmico”, drives the orchestral writing forwards in furious motor-rhythms, over which the solo violin operates in striking figurations – like a liberating dance at the end of a gripping story.

In terms of compositional technique, the material of the three movements is very closely interlinked. Ľubica Čekovská’s approach allows all the details of the texture to be related to each other: “I’m always concerned that all the material will be used and corresponds together. I never place unrelated ideas next to each other, but allow the musical elements to develop in a dialogue, as if the threads of the plot of a story are linked with each other.”

Adorations, composed in 2004–6 and premiered in Bratislava, contains such a mysterious message in great tonal, richly coloured intensity. “This two-part piece is also composed based on a single thematic impulse and particular rhythmic elements. At its centre is a dialogue between harp and three flutes, shrouded by the orchestra.” The orchestral work will receive its first German performance on 20 April 2011 in Gera.

Marie Luise Maintz 
from [t]akte 2/2010