Martinů, Bohuslav (1890-1959)

[Pulcinella]

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.

So the comment that Steinberg 'quotes' may well have been facetious, as RB has suggested.
(I'm impressed with your collection of scores, Suffy; how long before you get to Martinu?)

[Suffolkcoastal]

So the comment that Steinberg 'quotes' may well have been facetious, as RB has suggested.
(I'm impressed with your collection of scores, Suffy; how long before you get to Martinu?)

Yes I think it is as RB has suggested, Martinu was very good at putting enquirers 'off the scent', the interaction between harp & piano in the 1st Symphony is worth a full essay in its own right. Nearly at Martinu, with the scores (I've 22 I think), mix of vocal & study. Only two of the symphonies though, unfortunately the symphony scores are expensive (as is usual with Boosey's 'rip-off' prices), most of my scores have been acquired or bought 2nd hand, where I've got some great bargains, though a fair number were purchased new, though I keep adding new purchases, so I've got to go back to those when I reach the end of the alphabet. The score that I have of Martinu's 5th Piano Concerto is signed by Margrit Weber to whom the work is dedicated.

Just got to get through Mahler first, before Martinu, and yes 'shock-horror' I do have some Mahler scores!!!

[johnb]

Looks like it made it to CD:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dvorak-Suit...tag=musicwebuk

Thanks for the link. I have the impression that the CD has rarely been available in the UK so I've taken the opportunity to buy it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Excellent discussion of the Sejna Disc and others from Rob Barnett here....

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Oct01/Martinu_double_concerto.htm

I always felt lukewarm towards the Mackerras disc (I think he only recorded these works once**) , but I've just listened to this...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Concerto-Fresky-Piero-Francesca/dp/B00008FTY9/ref=sr_1_≈10?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1464460043&sr=1-10&keywords=mackerras+martinu

.It's the only Japanese special I've discovered apart from the Neumann Symphonies, and it has changed my view of both performances - elevated them a fair bit higher. Especially in the Double Concerto, there's a significant gain over the current Supraphon lossless download (the one c/w Field Mass, a reading I always liked) in all those typical Japanese-issue ways: timbral richness & dynamics, presence, inner clarity and acoustic ambience. Of the ones I've mentioned this probably has the best antiphonal effects and resolution of piano/timps/strings etc.
It was admittedly easy for me to gamble on it for £3! But if you're at all sound-quality oriented I don't think you'd be disappointed paying a little more. Thrilled, rather - and from the first few bars!

Snap it up before the prices get daft.

(**EDIT - ...there is another, later Mackerras Double Concerto after all (1992, perhaps less appealingly coupled)....https://www.amazon.co.uk/Martinu-Spa...kerras+martinu

[Daniel]

The 'Fantaisies symphoniques' at moments (the opening for example) reminds me of the bubbling, unreal world of Per Norgard's 8th symphony. I wonder if Norgard is a fan. In The Epic of Gilgamesh restlessness and poise sit next to each other and create a very particular kind of concentrated experience I find, and I love the occasional hypnotic chromatic shifts downwards in the choral parts. I think the Double Concerto is an amazing, gripping work, the slow movement theme once heard is never forgotten.

I certainly hear a French influence in his music at times, which when at play with his Czech sensibilities can be mysteriously exotic - on display in earlier parts of the lovely Three Frescoes of Piero della Francesca I think (I have a beautifully luminous JEG/Concertgebouw off air live recording). There's also a declamatory sumptiousness that sounds as if it may not be totally disconnected from a Hollywood influence, though the influence is perhaps the other way.

My next Martinu listening will be the Field Mass I think, which I've never knowingly heard.

[Bryn]

... My next Martinu listening will be the Field Mass I think, which I've never knowingly heard.

Yo are in for a real treat. Try and choose a recording which uses a harmonium for your first audition.

[Richard Barrett]

I think the Double Concerto is an amazing, gripping work

I just came across a marvellous performance of the Double Concerto in a live recording (broadcast in 1967) of Kubelik conducting the Boston Symphony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU-726ytabE

I prefer the slow movement (and its reprise) somewhat slower than this, but this performance is so impassioned it disarms any such criticism.

[Daniel]

Yo are in for a real treat. Try and choose a recording which uses a harmonium for your first audition.

Thanks for the tip.

I just came across a marvellous performance of the Double Concerto in a live recording (broadcast in 1967) of Kubelik conducting the Boston Symphony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU-726ytabE

I prefer the slow movement (and its reprise) somewhat slower than this, but this performance is so impassioned it disarms any such criticism.

Thanks, will listen to that later. I like the Hickox recording on Emi which isn't as opulent as the Belohlavek recording Jayne mentions in #46 (I intend to listen to the other recording also mentioned there), but I find I prefer its relatively pared down approach gives a more unsettling, raw experience (it also has Kubelik in a lovely,vibrant recording of the Fresques).

[Richard Barrett]

Something interesting I remembered from the rehearsal I attended on Friday: after a runthrough of the first movement, the conductor asked that the piano be moved from its usual "orchestral" position to the left of the violins to a much more central position, on account of problems with synchronising iportant rhythmical figures between piano and orchestra (and cues between piano and the solo oboe). In other words, the piano is really at the centre of Martinu's orchestra here (and elsewhere), which is one of the distinctive things about his orchestral writing, without the orchestral sound itself ever seeming as if it was worked out at the piano and then orchestrated (which it may have been, of course).

[Richard Barrett]

Another interesting find: Piano Concerto no.5 performed by its dedicatee Margrit Weber, with Rafael Kubelik conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a Deutsche Grammophon LP from 1965 -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh8jF6n5bIc

[Pulcinella]

I don't know the string quartets really, but earlier today I listened to the Concerto for string quartet and orchestra (in the recording conducted by Hickox with the Endellion Quartet), a very rare combination and a work I haven't heard often.

Spohr's Opus 131 for the same combination has just been played on Afternoon on 3 today (31/5/2016)!

[Bryn]

Spohr's Opus 131 for the same combination has just been played on Afternoon on 3 today (31/5/2016)!

And let's not forget Arnie's contribution to the genre. I will have a Crafty listen to that later on, I think.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And let's not forget Arnie's contribution to the genre. I will have a Crafty listen to that later on, I think.

[HighlandDougie]

And let's not forget Arnie's contribution to the genre. I will have a Crafty listen to that later on, I think.

This version of the great AS's work (and I hope that we're not talking about Mr Terminator) has given me a lot of enjoyment:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Johannes-Quartor-Diotima-Sinfonieorchester/dp/B00A2WVDVQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1464720241&sr=1-3&keywords=schoenberg+jun+markl

The Quatuor Diotima can do no wrong in my book ......

Err, apologies for being so OT. Check out Wolfgang Sawallisch's various live recordings of the symphonies (variously with the Philadelphia/Concertgebouw/Czech Phil) plus Ancerl's wonderful live 5th with his Toronto orchestra.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Quatuor Diotima can do no wrong in my book ......

Just to prolong the OT, I presume you know about this set, HighDoug?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Schoenberg-Berg-Webern-Complete-Quartet/dp/B01872MKD2