Archduke Rudolph: Music for Violin and Piano

Susan Kagan, piano, Josef Suk, violin
Koch International Classics - KIC 7082

Reviews
Strad Magazine (1992)
"The Suk-Kagan collaboration is one of unusual felicity . . .Kagan's pianism is smooth as the proverbial silk, strongly etched but never obtrusive, cannily blended with the playing of her partner and obviously dedicated to a unified view of the music."

American Record Guide (January/February, 1993)
"Rudolph's music beguiles me . . .A lot of my enthusiasm has to do with the first-class performances. This disc is a lively, unusual, and important event.

Gramophone (July, 1993)
". . .Kagan's intelligent performance [of the Sonata] with Josef Suk . . .present[s] effectively music which could give much pleasure apart from its historical interest."

Parade Magazine (September, 1992)
"…Thoroughly engaging and amiable compositions. Violinist Josef Suk and pianist Susan Kagan play them with skill and affection . . .a thoroughly attractive and certainly offbeat CD."

Liner Notes
Variations in F for violin and piano
(on a theme by Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia)
The variations in F were composed on a theme by Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, the talented royal composer who died on the battlefield in 1806, when he was 34. Archduke Rudolph's catalogs showed that he possessed the complete published works of Ferdinand, and the theme he used for the variations comes from the trio of a minuet movement from Louis Ferdinand's Quartet for Piano and Strings, op.6.

Sonata in f for violin and piano
The inspiration for this sonata may well have been Archduke Rudolph's performance of Beethoven's Sonata. op.96, with Pierre Rode, which took place at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven's other important patrons, Rudolph first composed an initial draft of all four movements, which was then heavily revised. The four manuscript copies of this sonata extant, each by a different copyist, suggest that the work had some popularity, at least in the Archduke's circle.