Éva Kóbor, Nella Balog & Sebestyén Pellet Presented by Liszt Academy

In this series, we introduce some of the Liszt Academy’s most promising young talents. The second concert features three artists who have put together a clever and imaginative program built around the interplay of violin, cello, and piano. From Johann Sebastian Bach’s three sonatas originally written for viola da gamba and harpsichord, the Sonata in G major follows the form of the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) genre, alternating two slow and two fast movements. This sunny, serene work is marked by playful polyphony and the richly melodic world of arias – and performing it on the cello is a real challenge. Kodály’s three-movement Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7, is a monumental and unmatched piece in Hungarian music history. The dialogue between violin and cello sets the players a chamber-music task of remarkable complexity and variety. Written in 1914, it predates a similarly iconic duo for the same instrumentation by Ravel, composed a few years later. At times, the listener may feel as if a whole orchestra is emerging from just these two instruments. The concert closes with Shostakovich’s early Piano Trio – astonishingly, he was only 16 when he wrote it. With its sophisticated construction and inventive harmonies, the piece lets us hear the first real flight of a genius taking shape.