Barak Schossberger, Shir Semmel ©Yoel Levy

 

"Fantasy", a recital of works for violin and piano, took place at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, Jerusalem, on June 8th, 2025. Performing were Shir Semmel (piano) and Barak Schossberger (violin).

 

The first composer to use the title "Fantasiestücke" (a term adopted from one of his favourite authors, E T A Hoffmann) Robert Schumann wrote four pieces in the genre — two for solo piano, one for piano trio and the Fantasiestücke Op.73. The circumstances in which the latter rhapsodic “Soirée Pieces” (their original title) came into being are quite surprising. In 1849, Dresden was seized by violent political turmoil that led to Robert and Clara Schumann fleeing to the countryside. There, in one of the happier periods of Robert Schumann’s career, he composed the Op.73 pieces in just over two days. Originally with the clarinet in mind, he indicated (as early as the original print) that the three typically A-B-A Romantic miniatures might also be played on violin or 'cello, these options clearly pointing to the burgeoning domestic market for home entertainment. Semmel and Schossberger address each of the pieces' abrupt changes in mood, the moments of deep introspection, the bursts of euphoria, of tenderness, even playful whimsy, inviting the audience to revel in the lush textures and in each delightful and unexpected harmonic shift. With a strong sense of musical communication, the artists gave eloquent expression to Schumann's "stream of consciousness." 

 

Deeply affected by the political situation of the day, Leoš Janáček started writing his Sonata for Violin and Piano during the formidable times of 1914–15, returning to it intermittently from 1916 to 1922. On the personal level, it was originally intended as a tribute to talented violinist Olga Ševčíková (the daughter of Janáček's friend, renowned violinist Otakar Ševčík.) Tragically, Olga died of typhoid fever at the age of 21 before the sonata's completion. Her death had a profound impact on Janáček and he dedicated the finished work to her memory. Moving through some interesting and unanticipated tonal landscapes, the Sonata is typical of Janáček's mature style, yet still reflecting the influences to which he was exposed during his growth as a composer - ideas he had conceived while researching the folk music of his native Moravia, as well as speech inflections of the Czech language. Semmel and Schossberger waste no time introducing the audience to the intense, specific feel of the work, from the first movement (Con moto), with its dramatic opening on solo violin, skittish motivic development and agitated piano accompaniment, followed by the Ballada setting out a long, Romantic lyrical main theme and its songful, almost lullaby-like secondary melody. The performance highlighted the movement's delicate rippling piano accompaniment, embracing the violin’s tender, lyrical writing. The Allegretto's folk/gypsy associations (violin slides and the Russian-sounding opening theme) were contrasted by an introspective, melancholic section, the movement's agenda all wedged into just over two minutes! Semmel and Schossberger concluded their close-knit, profound reading of the work with the elegiac bitter-sweet Adagio - its melody interspersed with urgent figures on hushed violin, the final fragments signing out with an overriding sense of desolation. 

 

Then to Franz Schubert’s Fantasie in C major for Violin and Piano D. 934, the composer's last work for this scoring, written shortly before his death in December 1827. A work of multi-coloured expansiveness, it manifests a simple musical concept, but, emotionally and technically speaking, it demands a decidedly complex realization. The artists set the scene, opening the first movement (Andante Molto) with one of Schubert's eeriest effects - hazy, quivering piano tremolos inviting the violin to creep in gradually and imperceptibly with a yearning, rising line. From this hushed, almost ghostly opening, Schossberger and Semmel lead the listener into the work's lyrical and virtuosic territory by turns, through Schubert's free reinvention of the four-section Fantasy (one even more expansive than the "Wanderer" for solo piano) through long-breathed melodies and adventurous harmonic explorations. They bring out the variety and charm of the third section (Andantino), the germ and crux of the piece - a splendid set of variations based on "Sei mir gegrüsst" (I greet you) a Lied Schubert wrote in 1821. With masterful teamwork, Semmel and Schossberger give poignant expression to the specific effects of the work’s fantastic elements, in both violin and piano, and to Schubert's fervently poetic language.