New Sonata
Oskar Morawetz, 29-year-old Czech composer who beat his way to Toronto after the war started, has won two prizes from the Composers,
Authors and Publishers' Association of Canada. Last Sunday night he played in a broadcast the second prize-winning composition
- his brilliant and symbolic "Sonata Tragica."
Well constructed in form and thematically developed, the sonata is one of the most satisfying new pieces of absolute music we have heard in a long time. Deeply inspired by the mass tragedy of Europe in the war, the young composer has given the sonata a nobility that expresses the great suffering and sorrows of refugees. There was no weak sentimentality of the "Warsaw Concerto" variety,
nor, on the other hand, merely another expression of modern musical
intellectualism. The inspiration had been sincerely conceived and a sound musicianship expressed it. Mr. Morawetz's piano performance was brilliant.
