Martinů, Bohuslav (1890-1959)

[jayne lee wilson]

It’s now on the list.

Yes. but go for either this -



or this -



The conveniently-available Mackerras is not his most inspired interpretation, despite the useful c/withs of Field Mass and a good, if less-than-wonderful Fresques de Piero della Francesca...
Oh I do love to write that title down, speak it in a husky whisper into the soft, moist night air for the owls & foxes to hear, and then.... listen to it again, played by...



Finest Fresques EVER? As you listen, you feel it so...
The Piano Concertos 2 & 4 here are also exceptional performances. Supraphon downloads being thin on the drives, I've finally seen postal delivery of the two Firkusny recordings of No.2 (Belohlavek 1990 & Pesek 1993 ) and despite their many qualities, this Kolinsky trumps them for: more flowing rippling virtuosic delivery of the solo part (Firkusny offers a more chiselled clarity of line & Pesek a slightly too laid-back, if warmly seductive, delivery of the orchestral role), and most of all superior recorded sound: the Basle SO granted appreciably finer amplitude, spaciousness and dynamic range. Simply a great single-issue Martinu album, getting you away from the usual Martinu recording-artist suspects. Don't miss it.

I still find Piano Concertos 2 and 3 a touch hard work.. melodically-appealing & very easy on the ears, but they feel written for the owner (Firkusny) to enjoy as the conventional virtuoso-vehicle, rather than exploring much originality of expression. All changes with the brilliant No.4 and - the rarely-heard-or-recorded No. 5, another Fantasy to couple up with the so-miscalled "Symphony No.6". I'm just listening to the Naxos version of this c/w No.3 (Koukl/Fagen, acclaimed by Guy Rickards and others) - and very recommendably fascinating it seems. ...

[Beef Oven!]

I need to be careful here. I’ve been wrongly enjoying those Neeme Jarvi BIS discs for 25 years, so I’d better get this right!

[jayne lee wilson]

I need to be careful here. I’ve been wrongly enjoying those Neeme Jarvi BIS discs for 25 years, so I’d better get this right!

IT's never too late! ....leave stubborn-ness & complacency to politicians...

[Pulcinella]

Beefy

Given your recent postings, perhaps this is the ideal coupling for you:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Martinu-Frescoes-Francesca-Brahms-Symphony/dp/B0042OEDF8

Proms performances of Brahms 2 and Martinu Frescoes by Belohlavek and the BBCSO, issued as a BBC MM CD.

[Pulcinella]

My feeling is that with the orchestral music the non-symphonies are often more interesting than the symphonies. Gilgamesh and the Field Mass are both quite unique and wonderful works I think.

I wonder if I was inoculated at birth against pieces with a narrator.
I don't get on with Gilgamesh any more than I do with Oedipus Rex, Persephone, or Le Roi David.

[MickyD]

Has anyone heard the four volumes of the music for violin and orchestra recorded by Matousek, the Czech Philharmonic and Christopher Hogwood on Hyperion? It's an unlikely combination, but I recall that Hogwood always had a fondness for Martinu's music, from his early years spent in Prague.

[Pulcinella]

Has anyone heard the four volumes of the music for violin and orchestra recorded by Matousek, the Czech Philharmonic and Christopher Hogwood on Hyperion? It's an unlikely combination, but I recall that Hogwood always had a fondness for Martinu's music, from his early years spent in Prague.

Hogwood has quite an impressive Martinu discography.

Currently available (Presto site):

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/advsearch.php?composer=Martinu&work=&performer=Hogwood&medium=all&label=&cat=

Some other recordings listed here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A229816%2Ck%3Amartinu+hogwood&keywords=martinu+hogwood&ie=UTF8&qid=1464348883

Looks like he has recorded the first violin concerto twice!
(Rather odd and I think unconnected artwork associated with one CD in the Amazon list!)

He's also the editor of the complete Revue on the Naxos release mentioned in post 29.

[MickyD]

Hogwood has quite an impressive Martinu discography.

Currently available (Presto site):

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/advsearch.php?composer=Martinu&work=&performer=Hogwood&medium=all&label=&cat=

Some other recordings listed here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=n%3A229816%2Ck%3Amartinu+hogwood&keywords=martinu+hogwood&ie=UTF8&qid=1464348883

Looks like he has recorded the first violin concerto twice!
(Rather odd and I think unconnected artwork associated with one CD in the Amazon list!)

He's also the editor of the complete Revue on the Naxos release mentioned in post 29.

I have those two non-Hyperion discs and they are very pleasing. It'd be nice if Hyperion put all their 4CDs in a bargain box.

[johnb]

My first experience of Martinu's music was back in the mid 60s when I was in my late teens. I bought a Supraphon LP of music by this unknown (to me) composer in an LP sale. It was the Double Concerto conducted by Sejna and the Frescos conducted by Ancerl and the music absolutely bowled me over. They are both stunning performances IMO.

I have bought quite a few recordings of the Double Concerto over the years, hoping to find one that (for me) has the same visceral power as the Sejna performance, but in a modern(-ish) recording. I have always been disappointed. The Sejna is on YouTube, transferred from the original LP: crackly, restricted dynamic range, muddy and gritty sound .... and yet, and yet ... what electricity Sejna generates in those opening bars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTuInMlW-pA&list=PLu0SBqSUDPZlqZhQaZf_VjKzx_HlOIvI5

[Pulcinella]

My first experience of Martinu's music was back in the mid 60s when I was in my late teens. I bought a Supraphon LP of music by this unknown (to me) composer in an LP sale. It was the Double Concerto conducted by Sejna and the Frescos conducted by Ancerl and the music absolutely bowled me over. They are both stunning performances IMO.

I have bought quite a few recordings of the Double Concerto over the years, hoping to find one that (for me) has the same visceral power as the Sejna performance, but in a modern(-ish) recording. I have always been disappointed. The Sejna is on YouTube, transferred from the original LP: crackly, restricted dynamic range, muddy and gritty sound .... and yet, and yet ... what electricity Sejna generates in those opening bars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTuI..._VjKzx_HlOIvI5

Looks like it made it to CD:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dvorak-Suite-Matinu-Double-Czech/dp/B00000358O?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&tag=musicwebuk

[Richard Barrett]

Has anyone heard the four volumes of the music for violin and orchestra recorded by Matousek, the Czech Philharmonic and Christopher Hogwood on Hyperion? It's an unlikely combination

Not as unlikely as it may seem, given Martinu's inspirations from 18th century music - for example in his Sinfonia concertante for the same instrumentation as that of Haydn) and indeed his lifelong interest in the "concerto grosso" idea - which I'm sure Hogwood found appealing and sympathetic. Anyway yes I have those CDs. My favourite item is a piece I think I mentioned before, the Concerto for violin and piano. I remember not much liking his Martinu disc with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra but that was down to them rather than him.

As luck would have it my local orchestra is playing Martinu this evening, the Oboe Concerto with François Leleux. I can't make it to the concert but I sat in on the dress rehearsal this morning. It's a fairly lightweight piece but superbly well-written for the solo instrument, and Leleux must be one of the finest oboists I've ever heard, not to be missed if you have a chance to hear him.

[soileduk]

About £3.63 as flac download from Supraphonline.

The new Smetana Trio set of the Martinu piano Trios works out at £7.01 for Flac. The downside is basic documentation in Czech and no Hi res but worth a punt.
I use a credit card that allows me to pay in the native currency and does not charge a conversion fee. This makes any foreign transaction much more inviting.

[jayne lee wilson]

Thanks, Richard.
He'd obviously got the hang of it by 1959: a harp is included in the list of players in Les fêtes nocturnes (Chamber Music No 1) on this CD, which I bought for the harpsichord concerto (and the complete La revue de cuisine):
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8572485

Well, my little puppet, perhaps by 1956...? Do you know the stunning Incantation (Piano Concerto No.4)? Listen to the first 3 minutes of the second movement. After the fantastical orchestral swirlings, fanfares and heavy percussion die down the harp starts rippling beneath the winds (there's a similar passage around 5'00 into the 1st movement); then after a pause, the piano begins a cadenza, but soon - surprise! - the harp joins it in extended, imitative duet. Remarkable textures are created with piano, harp and heavy percussion. Perhaps Martinu was commenting wittily on his orchestral piano/harp usage here . Whatever the truth of that, today I finally realised which earlier fantasia-concertante-type piece the Incantation reminds me of: Szymanowski, Symphonia Concertante, Symphony No.4. There's often a striking resemblance in both sound and atmosphere and what may even be a quotation from the Szymanowski, in the piano's lower registers, during the final cadenza of the poco moderato.

I'm falling in love with Incantation, having shamefully failed to truly commit to it earlier; it's truly intoxicating, with an intensity, integrated-yet-improvised feel to its developmental adventures, almost a "moment form" feel to its trajectory, and a soaring melodic memorability putting it easily on the peak shared with the Fresques or Fantaisies Symphoniques. (It's a pest to keep writing that but I'm trying to stop seeing the "6th" as just a part of the symphonic cycle).
I love both the Firkusny/Pesek and the Kolinsky/Ashkenazy, just perhaps preferring the latter for better sound and a wilder sense of fantasy. Again there aren't that many recordings, let alone good ones, but later tonight I'll try the Koukl/Fagen on Naxos, which also got excellent reviews from Rickards (G, 1/2011)...

With only 2 movements, composed between Fresques & Parables, the Concerto No.4 is distinct from the striking late group of works - all in 3 movements, though sharing with Incantation the coloristically inventive orchestral textures - Fantaisies, Fresques, Parables, Estampes.
There's more luscious oppositional blendings of harp, piano and percussion in the "Estampes" too....
....Obsessive variational minings of a glittering seam...

(Just getting to know the rarely-encountered 5th Piano Concerto with Koukl/Fagen/Naxos, which currently sounds something like: Martinu takes Bartok to Hollywood...)

[Pulcinella]

Well, my little puppet, perhaps by 1956...? Do you know the stunning Incantation (Piano Concerto No.4)?

Clearly not well enough to have remembered/realised the use of harp that you mention, despite having two recordings: Firkusny/Pesek and Palenicek/Pinkas (the coupling on the Turnovsky S4 release).


In my defence (), I knew that Martinu had used a harp somewhere, so was really looking for evidence, which I found in the Naxos CD liner notes mentioned.

I intend to give Incantations a spin over the weekend, and I will listen out in particular for the passage you mention, and for similarities with the Szymanowski, a work I think I might know a bit better.

Thanks for the pointers.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Just looking at the postings re the Harp, Martinu scores for the harp in symphonies 1-3, its use along with the piano in the 1st Symphony is integral to the timbre Martinu creates in this work, but its most telling scoring is in The Parables, which does not include a piano in the scoring.