Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No 7 in C minor

Performed by Josef Spacek and Michael Houstoun. (25′48″)

Download: Ogg Vorbis  MP3

Josef Špaček (violin)

Winner of the 2009 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Špaček returned to New Zealand the following year to perform with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and with Michael Houstoun on a Chamber Music New Zealand tour.

A native of the Czech Republic, his teachers have included Jaroslav Foltýn at the Prague Conservatory; Jaime Laredo, Ida Kavafian and Shmuel Ashkenasi at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia; and Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School in New York City. Upon graduation from Curtis in 2009, he was given the Fritz Kreisler Award, periodically given to outstanding violinists.

As a soloist, Josef Špaček has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonia among others; and has shared the podium with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, Jiří Bělohlávek, Roy Goodman, Jakub Hrůša and Rossen Milanov.

In September 2011, the 24-year-old Josef took up the post of First Concertmaster with the Czech Philharmonic, named by Gramophone magazine as one of the world's top twenty orchestras.

(Photo & bio: josefspacek.com.)

Michael Houstoun (piano)

Michael Houstoun was born in Timaru in 1952. He became interested in the piano when he was a small child and began lessons at the age of 5, first with Sister Mary Eulalie, and then with Maurice Till in Christchurch and Dunedin. By the age of 18 had won every major competition in New Zealand.

In 1973 he entered the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition where he placed third. Other international competition successes came in 1975 at the Leeds Competition (fourth prize) and in 1982 at the Tchaikovsky Competition (sixth prize). He studied with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute and with Brigitte Wild in London.

In 1981 Michael returned to New Zealand where he has continued to live and concertise ever since. His repertoire stretches from JS Bach to the present day, including 40 concertos and chamber music. A strong advocate of New Zealand music, works by Lilburn and Psathas regularly feature in his programmes.

Michael won the Turnovsky Prize in 1982, and in 1999 received an honorary doctorate in literature from Massey University. In 2007 he was made a laureate of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In 2009 he performed all five of Beethoven's Piano Concertos with the Vector Wellington Orchestra.

(Photo © Dean Zillwood)

Sonata Op 30/2

I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio cantabile
III. Scherzo: Allegro
IV. Finale: Allegro; Presto

Despite, or perhaps even propelled by, his increasing deafness, 1802 was a prolific year for Beethoven. He spent the summer just outside Vienna in the village of Heiligenstadt, putting the finishing touches on his Second Symphony and completing several other works, including the three Opus 30 violin sonatas.

They belong to the middle period of his creative output - a time when he started to break away from conventional paths of composition. His Opus 12 sonatas, written four years earlier, already placed increasing technical demands on the pianist.

The second of his Opus 30 sonatas, in C minor, is the boldest and most dramatic of the set, and is arguably the most powerful of his violin sonatas after the Kreutzer.