Kunc, Božidar: Three Compositions for Violin and Piano, Op. 28

As he did in his early Op. 4, Kunc with this cycle Op. 28 from 1936 addresses a colleague again, this time violinist Zlatko Topolski, who wrote his violin markings in the violin part of the manuscript - which again can be found in the Library of the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb. The first edition of the work was published with these violin markings in 2003 by HUOKU in Zagreb. Topolski probably gave it the first performance with the composer at the piano.

Compared to Op. 4, this later and more mature work for the same instruments shows similar inspiration, but is somewhat closer to the taste and understanding of the audience. The first movement (Calls) evokes human and bird voices, not as literally as in Messiaen, but rather as if searching for a soul contact. The second movement (Memory) is a protest against passing time, akin to the Meditation by Dora Pejačević, but less introverted. The third movement (Night at Pilgrims’ Fair), which abundantly makes use of violinistic resources, innovatively uses the pizzicato technique imitating the folk instrument tamburica, but also quotes the mediaeval sequence Dies irae as a reminder of the Last Judgement while the celebration is going on. The density of moods in all three movements makes the work attractive to students and concert violinists.

The effort to enlarge the scope of violin solutions justifies this new edition.

Radovan Lorković, 2007.