Rachmaninoff and Kalabis

Emma Hays Johnson, cello, and Carl Banner, piano, perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata, Op. 19, and Viktor Kalabis’ Sonata, Op. 29.

Viktor Kalabis Sonata Op. 29 was written in the first year of Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and reflects the mood of that time. “The fundamental conflict of that era — the absolute impossibility of truth prevailing in the existing society — pervaded my mind and all of my work. It was necessary to fight, to resist!”