Evocation – A Violin Recital by Ané van Staden

We are delighted to present Ané van Staden (violin) and Misha Melck (piano) at Northwards House on Sunday, September 8th at 3PM, where they will be presenting a recital entitled Evocation, featuring the music of Brahms, Debussy, and De Falla.

Ané van Staden is a lecturer in violin and ensemble studies at the University of Pretoria. An active performer, she was a member of the Miagi Orchestra between 2009-14, touring Europe and performing at festivals such as the Young Euro Classic Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele. Ané was awarded the Unisa DJ Roode Overseas Scholarship in 2010 which enabled her to further her studies in the UK with Natalia Lomeiko and Corina Belcea. A founding member of the Evolution of 4 String Quartet (2012-19), Ané also acted as Head of Strings for the Gauteng Chamber Music Festival (2014-18), and founded the Gauteng Music Initiative (2017).

An active performer, pianist Misha Melck has been awarded numerous prizes during her studies.  These include top prizes at both the Sanlam and Musicon National Competitions, as well as third prize at the “Virtuosi per Musica di Pianoforte” Competition in the Czech Republic in 2002. She was invited, together with violinist Ané van Staden and clarinetist Visser Liebenberg, to take part in the DECODA Institute South Africa, where they were mentored by the affiliated ensemble from Carnegie Hall. Apart from completing her education at the University of Pretoria, Misha also studied abroad with Pascal Nemirovski at the Royal Academy of Music, and Jura Margulis in Vienna. Being awarded the Unisa DJ Roode Overseas Scholarship in 2012, Misha was able to travel to numerous countries in Europe for master classes.

The summer of 1886 would turn out to be a particularly fruitful period in the musical life of Johannes Brahms. Having established himself as one of the great musical figures of Europe, with his symphonies and most of the concerti behind him, Brahms settled in the beautiful alpine town of Thun, Switzerland where he would compose some of his greatest chamber works. Apart from the Cello Sonata no. 2 and the Piano Trio no. 3, he completed the Violin Sonata no. 2 and drafted what was to become the Violin Sonata no.3 in D minor, Op. 108. When taking into account that these two violin sonatas were worked on almost simultaneously, one cannot help but note how the D minor sonata stands apart from its predecessor: in form, it is set in four movements whereas the earlier work contains three, and it has a prevailing mood that is filled with drama and turbulent energy, quite unlike the lyricism and often cheerful character of the earlier work. The dramatic energy of the Violin Sonata no. 3 has often been compared to that of another great work set in the same key of D minor – the much earlier Piano Concerto no. 1.

Towards the end of his life, Claude Debussy turned to one of the most significant musical forms of the last 400 years, the sonata. This might be unexpected when considering how, as he started to develop his personal style during the last decade of the 19th century, and in doing so moved away from Germanic compositional styles, Debussy extolled the virtues of “music that seemed to be floating in free space”, holding little regard for such academic models. Encouraged by his publisher Jacques Durand, he was to compose a group of six Sonatas for various instruments, of which only three came into fruition, the third being the Violin Sonata, Debussy’s last completed work. Adding the patriotic inscription “Claude Debussy – Musicien Français” to the title page, one is reminded that the composer chose to distinguish his approach to the sonata from the Austro-Germanic tradition, instead citing French Baroque composers such as Couperin and Rameau as influences.

Spanish composer Manuel de Falla composed the Siete canciones populares españolas for voice and piano in 1914, during an extended stay in Paris. Along with Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados, de Falla is considered to be one of the eminent composers incorporating their native Spanish folk music as a main source of inspiration. These songs takes the listener on a journey through Spanish culture with “El paño moruno” from the Moorish South, to the  Andalusian “Nana” and “Polo”, “Asturiana” from Northern Spain, ending with the very lively “Jota” from Aragon. Although de Falla did not compose any original music for violin, a number of very effective transcriptions by the Polish violin virtuoso Paul Kochanski exist, amongst them a selection of these songs entitled Suite populaire espagnole.