Czech Chamber Music Society • Jan Fišer

“With Beethoven, a new epoch commenced for pianists and violinists,” wrote Ignaz von Mosel a few years after Beethoven’s death. This statement is based on the striking equality of the two instruments, while in Mozart’s early sonatas these two instruments were presented as piano with violin accompaniment. The first of Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas have a similar character; he tried to maintain this Mozartian type of sonata, but in fact gave the violin a much greater role. Beethoven’s first opuses are piano trios and piano sonatas, string trios and a sonata for piano and cello. His three sonatas, Op. 12, are entitled in a similar way as Sonatas for Piano and Violin. Beethoven composed these sonatas between 1797 and 1798, and dedicated this opus under the title Tre Sonate per il Clavicembalo o Forte-Piano con un Violino to his teacher, Antonio Salieri, the Imperial Court Kapellmeister, composer, teacher and conductor, one of the most important and influential figures in Vienna at the time. Beethoven first went to Vienna at the age of 17 to meet Mozart, and for the second time at the age of 22. He studied with Joseph Haydn (because Mozart died in the meantime) and also educated himself, especially in his approach to dramatic form, by consulting Salieri. Like every composer of the time, he longed to excel in opera, but his main strength from the beginning was instrumental music. While still in Bonn, Beethoven worked as a violinist in the local court orchestra. He mastered the instrument and continued to play it even after his move to Vienna. In his violin sonatas Beethoven continued on the path begun by Mozart – the violin ceased to be an accompaniment and became an equal partner to the piano. The form of the sonatas also follows from Mozart – they are in three movements, with an opening Allegro in sonata form and a concluding Rondo.

The second movement in Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12, to be heard tonight, presents a 32-bar theme with four variations and a coda. The dialogue between the piano and violin is a defining feature of Beethoven’s violin sonatas, but the use of distinctive modulations and rhythms seemed to cause consternation among the audience. Even the dedicatee Antonio Salieri reacted in surprise to the innovative style of the music. A critic of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung wrote as early as 1799: “It is undeniable that Herr van Beethoven goes his own way, but what a bizarre, laborious way! Studied, studied, and perpetually studied, and no nature, no song. Indeed, to put it precisely, there is only a mass of learning here, without good method. There is obstinacy for which we feel little interest, a striving for rare modulations, a repugnance against customary associations, a piling on of difficulty upon difficulty so that one loses all patience and enjoyment.” Robert Schumann, on the other hand, in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1836 expressed his opinion metaphorically: “...in those 37 years the name Beethoven has unfurled like a shining sunflower – and what has remained of the words of the former reviewer?”

Czech Philharmonic concertmaster Jan Fišer was born into a musical family. He exhibited his obvious musical talent from an early age, winning many competitions (Kocian Violin Competition, Concertino Praga, UNESCO Tribune of Young Musicians, Beethoven’s Hradec etc.).

He began playing the violin under the guidance of Hana Metelková and later studied at the Prague Conservatory with Jaroslav Foltýn. He went through the famed summer program at the Meadowmount School of Music three times, where he met his future teacher, Andrés J. Cárdenes, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It was in this distinguished professor’s class that Jan Fišer graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music in Pittsburgh in 2003. He furthered his musical education at numerous masterclasses led by, for example, Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, and Joseph Silverstein.

Just as he was deciding whether to remain in the USA, the Prague Philharmonia announced an audition for the position of concertmaster. Fišer won the audition and stayed with the orchestra for sixteen years—until 2020, when he moved to the same position with the Czech Philharmonic, where he remains today. He has appeared as a guest concertmaster with the Bamberg Symphony, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

As a soloist, he has performed for audiences in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, France, and Poland, as well as in Japan. He has also participated in major music festivals (the Pau Casals International Music Festival in Spain, Murten Classics in Switzerland, and the Brevard Music Festival in the USA). He also performs with Czech orchestras, including the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, and the Czech Philharmonic, with whom he performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano alongside Václav Petr and Karolina Pancernaite in early 2026.

In addition to his extensive orchestral and solo activities, he is also dedicated to chamber music—together with pianist Ivo Kahánek and cellist Tomáš Jamník, he forms the Dvořák Trio, which ranks among the leading Czech chamber ensembles and has achieved success in renowned venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie.

Jan Fišer also regularly records for television and radio, and as one of five laureates, he contributed to the CD A Tribute to Jaroslav Kocian for the 40th anniversary of the Kocian International Violin Competition. He is also active as an educator—serving as a mentor at the MenART scholarship academy and regularly teaching at music courses, including the Ševčík Academy in Horažďovice and the Telč Music Academy.

He plays a French violin from the early 19th century attributed to the luthier François-Louis Pique.