Works for Violin, Cello & Orchestra

Towards the end of his life, Johannes Brahms felt drawn to the intimacy of chamber music, piano pieces and songs. Yet in 1887 he returned to orchestral music with the Double Concerto in A minor op. 102 - his last orchestral work. The reason was personal in nature: a gesture of reconciliation towards his estranged friend, the great violinist Joseph Joachim. The work is dedicated to him and cellist Robert Hausmann. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Sinfonia concertante in E flat major for violin and viola in the summer of 1779 - a true synthesis of symphony and concerto. Mozart, himself an accomplished violinist, knew how to compose for this instrument with flair and feeling. A special feature of the work is that the viola part is written in D major, which means the instrument must be tuned half a tone higher (a practice known as scordatura). Scordatura was customary in the Baroque period and was still occasionally used in Mozart's time to achieve a brighter, more penetrating sound. On this recording, the viola part is played by a cellist who plays in the original viola position without octave transposition. Leos Cepicky (1965) was trained at the Academy for Performing Arts in Prague, where he studied violin with Prof. Jiri Novak and chamber music with Prof. Antonin Kohout - both founders of the legendary Smetana Quartet. During his studies he became a founding member of the Wihan Quartet, with which he still performs internationally. Michal Kanka (born in 1960) is a renowned solo cellist, but chamber music has always been central to his artistic work. He was co-founder of the Havlak Quartet and later of the Martinu Quartet and from 1986 to 2022 was a member of the renowned Prazak Quartet. Since 2017 he has been a member of the Wihan Quartet.