Capriccio for violin, and piano, Op. 18 (ca 1935)
Manuscript: University of Warsaw Library (BUW). Call number: Mus. VIII manuscript 2
Premiere: Berlin 1994
it probably originated in ca 1935–36 as a by-product of his work on a now unknown Violin Concerto, whose appearance had already been signalled by Alfred Plohn in 1933 (‘Josef Koffler. Ein junger polnischer Komponist’, Signale für die musikalische Welt 23/24, 5 June 1933, 439). Such a hypothesis (put forward by Gołąb) is supported by Plohn’s information that the concerto consisted of a Toccata, Variation on a Polish Folksong, and Finale.
Also characteristic of that latter work is the way in which the use of twelve-note technique is ‘disguised’ in a way, since the motoric opening of the violin part does nothing to highlight it. All the same, the piece is based on a specifically shaped series that makes it possible to introduce functional triad harmonies in the accompaniment. It is from that series that the composer derives the two principal themes, which he then develops and briefly recapitulates, as in the sonata form. Capriccio is undoubtedly an example of an original Neoclassical stylistic formula based on the model of a virtuoso violin capriccio, free in form but typically fast and intense in expression. The following very apt remark on the Capriccio was probably penned by Koffler himself: ‘today the [genre’s] name is used for pieces abounding in unexpected, original turns’ (‘What Every Musician Ought to Know’, Orkiestra 7 (1932)).
