Czech Chamber Music Society • Jeremias Pestalozzi
Julia Fischer first introduced the young violinist Jeremias Pestalozzi to the Czech Chamber Music Society. Jeremias is returning for the society’s current season, this time in a recital with a major piano talent of his generation, Matouš Zukal. The varied programme includes classics while also taking inspiration from this year’s theme of music from South America.
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in E flat major, KV 380
Johannes Brahms
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
George Enescu
Violin Sonata No. 2 in F minor, Op. 6
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Sonata-Fantasia No. 1 “Désespérance”
Performers
Jeremias Pestalozzi housle
Matouš Zukal klavír
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Performers
Jeremias Pestalozzi violin
Jeremias Pestalozzi was born in 2005 and has been playing the violin since he was five years old. He was in the string academy of Simone and Peter Michielsen in Puchheim until March 2022 and played as concertmaster in the Puchheim Youth Chamber Orchestra. He is the first violinist in the quartet called Quartessenz (formed in 2016) and could be heard among others at the “Ickinger Frühling” in 2022. He won the 1st prize (duo and solo) at the national competition of “Jugend musiziert” in 2018 and 2019.
Since 2019, he has been “Jungstudent” at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich – first with Simone and Peter Michielsen and Christoph Poppen and since March 2022 in the class of Julia Fischer where he also began his bachelor in October 2023. In addition he has attended master classes with Ana Chumachenco, Ingolf Turban, Nora Chastain and others.
In 2019, he made his debut with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra with the 2nd Violin Concerto by Henryk Wieniawski and played there again as a soloist under Daniel Spaw with the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 in July 2021. In 2022, he performed the Violin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in April with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Andrej Vesel and in June with the Wendland Symphony Orchestra under the conducting of Johannes Köhler.
In February 2020, he won a violin by Antonio Gragnani, Livorno 1779, on loan at the 28th competition of the German Musical Instrument Fund of the German Foundation for Musical Life in Hamburg, which he can continue to play after the 29th competition in February 2022.
Matouš Zukal piano
Matouš Zukal (*1998) studied at the Prague Musical Grammar School under Jitka Němcová and at
the Prague Conservatoire in the studio of Ivo Kahánek, then he furthered his studies under Kahánek
and Jan Bartoš at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he is continuing his studies in the
doctoral programme while also working towards a master’s degree at the Universität für Musik und
darstellende Kunst in Graz in the studio of Markus Schirmer. In 2021, he became a laureate of the
Prague Spring International Competition, earning Second Prize, the Gideon Klein Foundation Prize,
and the Czech Centres Award. In 2019 he won the Bohuslava Martinů Foundation Competition,
where he also received the prize for the best interpretation of a composition by Bohuslav Martinů
and the Zorka and Jaroslav Zich Prize. In 2023, he won First Prize at the festival Verão Clássico in
Lisbon, and in 2025 he became the winner of the Concours international de piano d’Île-de-France and
of the Martha Debelli Stiftung competition. Since his childhood, he has been consulting at
masterclasses with such important figures as Sir András Schiff, Lukáš Vondráček, Boris Giltburg, Jiří
Hlinka, and Leif Ove Andsnes.
Compositions
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in E flat major, KV 380
Johannes Brahms
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
Johannes Brahms composed his first sonata for violin and piano (Op. 78) in 1878, the second (Op. 100) eight years later. Both are written in a major key and both radiate joy and happiness throughout. Brahms’s last violin sonata, Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3, Op. 108, in D minor, is markedly different, which is audible from the very outset of the introductory movement. Of particular interest in the development section is the pedal point, sustained for over 40 bars, above which the first and second subjects contend and wildly explode. The second movement, featuring a gentle, engrossing melody, is the very opposite of the introduction, yet it is evident that the tranquillity is just temporary. The third, scherzo, movement may be characterised as “nervous”, with its accumulated unrest venting in the thunderous finale. Brahms’s third violin sonata is far from being intimately lyrical, which usually applies to compositions of this type, and when it comes to the technical requirements placed on the performers, it is clearly a concert piece. Dedicated to the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, it premiered on 21 December 1888 in Budapest, with Jenő Hubay (1858–1937) playing the violin and Brahms on the piano. The programme of the concert also included Brahms’s String Quartet in G major and songs, which were performed by the Czech tenor Gustav Walter. According to the press reports, the audience responded with standing ovations and the slow movement of the violin sonata had to be repeated.
George Enescu
Violin Sonata No. 2 in F minor, Op. 6
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Sonata-Fantasia No. 1 “Désespérance”