Marij Kogoj's Andante for Violin and Piano

Abstract

Marij Kogoj's Andante for violin and piano is not only his first and at the same time his best work of its kind, but it is also the first musically mature violin composition in Slovene musical literature. Written around 1924, it was for the first time performed by the violinist Karel Jeraj and the composer at the piano on May 25, 1925 at a concert in Ljubljana. On that occasion critics found the work weak in compositional compactness and uneven in musical ideas, not realizing that improvisational, psychologically founded modelling was to be the central feature of Kogoj's creative mind. The knowledge about this essential characteristic of his music spread only slowly, not infrequently through the help of the Andante. Two manuscripts of this work have survived; because of printing errors the published editions have obviously to all extent modified Kogoj's original ideas.