- Composed in 1826

- Duration: 14 minutes

The Czech violinist Josef Slavík began making his way in the world as a performer while still a child, playing with an amateur string quartet at nine years old. Soon, his obvious talent caught the attention of a patron whose support allowed him to enroll in the Prague Conservatory, where he studied from ages ten to seventeen. After a brief stint as an orchestral musician and concertizing soloist, Slavík decided to move to Vienna in 1826 to try his luck among some of the best and brightest of the time. Shortly after his arrival, Slavík became acquainted with Franz Schubert, who wasted no time writing the Rondo in B minor for Violin and Piano for his new friend. The premiere was given by pianist Carl Maria von Bocklet along with Slavík during a private performance the following year.

Rondo form is a musical structure that features a theme, or refrain, which repeatedly returns between statements of contrasting musical material. It is used most often for the final movement of a sonata, and occasionally as the framework for a stand-alone solo piece. In his lifetime, Schubert completed six self-contained rondos, among them the Rondo in A major for Violin and String Quartet (1816), and the Grand Rondo in A major for Piano, Four Hands (1828). The B-minor Rondo, given its instrumentation for solo violin and piano, overlaps with a similarly small collection of works Schubert wrote for the solo violin. Those include four sonatas for violin and piano written in 1816–17, and a Fantasy in C major (1827)—the latter of which was also written for Slavík. 

A standout feature of the Rondo in B minor is its sheer dramatic scope, unmatched in Schubert’s other works in the genre. Some observers note this may be a result of its chronological proximity to his extraordinary final string quartet (in G major, D. 887), written just four months earlier the same year, as they share characteristics of emotional breadth and scale. The Rondo begins with an extensive andante introduction. At the top, it displays a severe and lofty in mood which quickly softens into flowing lyrical conversation between the two instruments before returning to the opening material, though reversing the direction of the violin’s sweeping scales. This all ends abruptly as the action shifts hesitantly, and then decisively to the winsome and rollicking allegro section, which cycles through a myriad of contrasting sections while maintaining a relentless energetic drive forward. When the work was published by Artaria, it was given the descriptor “brilliant,” which is apt, particularly given the virtuosic nimbleness demanded of both pianist and violinist culminating in a bravura conclusion. 

Program note © Kathryn Bacasmot