Violin-Piano Duo to Perform Brahms, Respighi and More at UW-Milwaukee

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Photo: UWM Peck School of the Arts

Bernard Zinck and Carole Chicha

Bernard Zinck and Carole Chicha

The Bernard Zinck-Carole Chicha duo first performed together when they were 17 and 18 while studying at the Paris Conservatory in Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux’s chamber music class. Shortly thereafter they went their separate ways, only reconnecting virtually at the beginning of the COVID pandemic through a mutual violinist friend. Meeting in person in early 2022 in Candes-Saint-Martin where UWM music faculty violinist Zinck owns a home, they decided to renew their collaboration and started planning several performances in Paris and in the United States. 

In July 2022 Zinck created the chamber music festival “Musiques et Vignes en Confluence” in Candes-Saint- Martin in the Loire River Valley, a region famous for its wines. He invited Chicha, a pianist, to perform with him in its inaugural season, a collaboration that was enhanced by a residency at the Dutilleux-Joy Foundation based in Candes-Saint-Martin. “Reconnecting was both wonderful and meaningful after nearly four decades of not being in contact, our friendship and musical connection have remained intact,” he said.

Being able to rehearse at the Maison Dutilleux-Joy (the summer house of the late pianist Geneviève Joy and her husband, composer Henri Dutilleux) during their summer residency allowed them to establish a solid foundation for their duo. It “seemed like it was all meant to happen,” he added. The duo, eager to perform a new repertoire, have worked on three different programs: starting last year with French and Spanish programs, and continuing this year, with a Polish music program. 

For the program at UWM they will play Karol Szymanowski’s Sonata Op. 9 in D Minor, Brahms Sonata No. 2 in A Major for Piano and Violin and Ottorino Respighi’s Sonata in B Minor. The Polish composer and pianist Karol Szymanowski published his Sonata No. 9 in 1904. It was premiered in Warsaw by Artur Rubenstein and the violinist Pawel Koshcanski in 1909. Turbulently chordal in the first movement, interestingly playing between pizzicato and bowed phrases in the slow movement, it concludes with a spirited tarantella. 

Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 is also called the “Thun” Sonata as it was composed in 1886 while Brahms was staying in Thun, Switzerland. Thun is located in the Bern Canton where the River Aare flows out of the Thunersee (Lake Thun). The countryside is delightful, and it is easy to see why the sonata is so lyrical and joyous. It moves from one wonderful melody to the next as the composer develops his ideas. The dynamics will have you on the edge of your seats and humming its melodies days later.

Brahms titled the sonata as being for piano and violin, indicating that the piano is of equal importance in this composition. The piece begins with a musical statement similar to that of “Walther’s Prize Song” from Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger.  Hence it’s also sometimes referred to as the “Meistersinger Sonata.”

Intimate and Luminous

Chicha noted that Brahms’s Sonata No. 2 is an intimate and luminous work. Unlike the other two sonatas that are more virtuosic and larger in scope, this Sonata requires a softer approach to reveal and express its essence.

After the intermission the program will conclude with the sonata by Respighi. Ottorino Respighi, the Italian composer and pianist, completed his Sonata in B Minor in 1917. It is a very difficult piece with a complex tonal system. The time signatures frequently change and are sometimes different, as in the second movement where parts of the piano are in 4/4 while the violin is in 10/8. Hearing this wonderfully expressive composition will be an exceptional treat.

Zinck and Chicha will perform this program 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6, 2023 at UWM’s Fine Arts Recital Hall, UWM Music Building Room 175, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. The superb acoustics in this hall will enhance your listening experience for what promises to be a memorable recital. Admission is free.