Frank Martin

[Mandryka]

Has anyone heard any of the German versions of Le Vin Herbé? There are a couple of recordings, with good casts.  Der Zaubertrank. Was the composer himself involved?



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375762287250

https://www.cede.ch/de/music/?view=detail&aid=16293658

[Symphonic Addict]

I saw this documentary mentioned elsewhere and I thought it would be nice to share it here too:

Martin was so talented that he initially had studied mathematics and physics before being a composer and he built a radio with which he could transmit chess moves with morse codes, playing with a friend so they passed the moves to each other (taken from the documentary).

[Mandryka]

Can any of the Frank Martinet's here share a recording with me? The Sine Nomine Quartet playing his quartet. Also The Utrecht String Quartet (but that may not exist, I'm not sure.)

[ritter]

Has anyone heard any of the German versions of Le Vin Herbé? There are a couple of recordings, with good casts.  Der Zaubertrank. Was the composer himself involved?



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375762287250

https://www.cede.ch/de/music/?view=detail&aid=16293658

According to Wikipedia, Martin participated in the translation of the libretto into German, which was made for the first stage production of the work in the 1948 Salzburg Festival. I get the impression that this "German version" had purely a practical purpose, as the custom of performing works in the vernacular had not yet completely disappeared at the time.

A recording of the world première is available on Orfeo:



His later Shakespeare-based opera The Tempest was written to a German libretto (IIRC, it was a commission of the Vienna State Opera).

[Mandryka]

By the way, I'll, just report that I've started to listen to the recording of Le Mystère de la Nativité with Cuenod and , Ansermet conducting the Suisse-Romande, which is streaming on spotify.

[Mandryka]

According to Wikipedia, Martin participated in the translation of the libretto into German, which was made for the first stage production of the work in the 1948 Salzburg Festival. I get the impression that this "German version" had purely a practical purpose, as the custom of performing works in the vernacular had not yet completely disappeared at the time.

A recording of the world première is available on Orfeo:



His later Shakespeare-based opera The Tempest was written to a German libretto (IIRC, it was a commission of the Vienna State Opera).

May be worth hearing for Patzak. IT's streaming

https://open.spotify.com/album/09B8K3TF6gmirTGuT9LrrW

[hopefullytrusting]

I love Frank Martin because he seems made up. His name sounds like a character who works for the union in The Wire Season 2, but he's Swiss and lived his life in the Netherlands.

I imagine he's most famous for his choral works (which are all amazing, in my opinion - also, award-winning, if I recall correctly), but he's consistent, as I would expect from anyone named Frank Martin.

I've really come to enjoy these pieces:
Fantasia on Flamenco Rhythms (for solo piano): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJJwzO7BdQY
Quatre pièces brèves (for solo guitar): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzqVh-4duc8
Trombone Ballade (1938) for Trombone and Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhlF49ZObzQ
Trombone Ballade (1940) for Trombone and Piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZxAZqc5fKE

Love his music!

[Madiel]

Listening to more is STILL on my to-do list, having learned to play the final of the 8 piano preludes several decades ago, and liking it when at the time I didn't know a lot of 20th century music.

[pjme]

This is the LP that introduced me (as a teenager) to Martin. I didn't own it but got it from the library. Then, a couple of years later, I saw it choreographed (Hans van Manen)  - and continued my search: In terra pax, Le vin herbé, Martinon/Concerto for 7 winds,, the 8 préludes for piano..; and Martins  deeply moving last work, the cantata Et la vie l'emporta. Equally impressive I find Polyptique for violin and 2 small string orchestras, and, of course, the Mass.

" Martin frequently wrote and lectured about his own work and about music in general. His beliefs are beautifully captured in a statement from 1966. "Whatever the movements of the soul, the spirit, the sensibility that are manifested in one's work, and whether the state is one of anguish or even despair, one's art inevitably bears the sign of ... this liberation, this sublimation which evokes in us a finished form, and which is, I think, what is called beauty."
Surce: https://interlude.hk/frank-martin-1890-1974-a-spiritual-tribute/

[Mandryka]

One piece I just cannot get on with is the one which others claim as his masterpiece -- the Jedermann monologues. The singers all seem to be too shouty.  Is there a sort of gentlemanly charming civilised version?