Miloslav Kabelác

Ballad op. 27

The work of Miloslav Kabelác (1908–1979), one of the most important Czech composers of the 20th century, is dominated by works for orchestra, but his chamber music oeuvre is also extensive and diverse, and enjoys great popularity among performers and listeners. Particularly noteworthy here is the impressive one-movement Ballade (Ballata) for violin and piano op. 27 from 1955.

Kabelác composed this ten-minute piece for a composition competition that was announced for the first time in 1956 as part of the famous Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition and was to take place in Warsaw. Of the 128 works sent in from twenty countries, Kabelác's ballad won the fourth prize. The premiere took place on 9 June 1956 in Warsaw with the Polish performers Igor Ivanov and Jerzy Lefeld. In 1967, the ballad was included in the list of elective compositions for the second round of the Wieniawski Violin Competition.

The Czechoslovak premiere took place in Prague in 1957 with the then concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic, Karel Šroubek, and the prominent pianist Jan Panenka. Šroubek was also the editor of the violin part for the first edition of the work (1957), which will be published here in a new edition (2024).