Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

[Mirror Image]

Excellent news! We could always use more recordings of these wonderful works.

I agree only partly. While it is nice to have these works recorded again, I have to say that I doubt I'll find better performances of the CCs than the ones I already own (Angelica May/Neumann, Wallfisch/Belohlavek). The Concertino for Cello, Winds, Percussion, and Piano and the Sonata da Camera are a bit more difficult to track down, but if you own the Wallfisch/Belohlavek recording, you'll get the Concertino, but, unfortunately, the Sonata da Camera was originally coupled with Angelica May's recording of the first and second CC (w/ Neumann) on LP, but when this recording was issued on CD, Supraphon didn't include it, so what this means is you would have to go the Japanese route as Denon issued May's recording of Dvorak's CC (also w/ Neumann conducting) with this Martinu work. I hope I was able to make some sense out of this jumbled mess of a post.

[kyjo]

I'd be curious to see what you're interested in hearing next. Do you have a list or anything of works you want to explore?

Well, I'm definitely aiming to explore a good amount of the Martinu pieces you included on that list you sent me. However, I'm a different type of listener than you, John - I generally don't explore one particular composer really in-depth within a relatively short period of time like you do. I like to include a good amount of variety in my listening so as not to get burned out on a particular composer, no matter how much I love their music. So, as much as I love Martinu's music, I'm probably only gonna get to know about a quarter of his output by the end of the year.

[kyjo]

I agree only partly. While it is nice to have these works recorded again, I have to say that I doubt I'll find better performances of the CCs than the ones I already own (Angelica May/Neumann, Wallfisch/Belohlavek). The Concertino for Cello, Winds, Percussion, and Piano and the Sonata da Camera are a bit more difficult to track down, but if you own the Wallfisch/Belohlavek recording, you'll get the Concertino, but, unfortunately, the Sonata da Camera was originally coupled with Angelica May's recording of the first and second CC (w/ Neumann) on LP, but when this recording was issued on CD, Supraphon didn't include it, so what this means is you would have to go the Japanese route as Denon issued May's recording of Dvorak's CC (also w/ Neumann conducting) with this Martinu work. I hope I was able to make some sense out of this jumbled mess of a post.

True, John. It's also hard for me to imagine Wallfisch/Belohlavek to be bettered (I haven't heard May/Neumann). I'm also eager to hear Sol Gabetta's new recording of the 1st.

[Mirror Image]

Well, I'm definitely aiming to explore a good amount of the Martinu pieces you included on that list you sent me. However, I'm a different type of listener than you, John - I generally don't explore one particular composer really in-depth within a relatively short period of time like you do. I like to include a good amount of variety in my listening so as not to get burned out on a particular composer, no matter how much I love their music. So, as much as I love Martinu's music, I'm probably only gonna get to know about a quarter of his output by the end of the year.

That is a good strategy, Kyle. Reaching burnout is something I'm trying to avoid. It is interesting, though, that my enthusiasm for Martinu's music only increased with more exposure to his music. Sometimes I get in way over my head and, thus, burnout happens. It's quite easy for me to reach burnout with a composer like Shostakovich for example. His music is so intense and I truly love it, but, boy, do I have to be careful as his music can drain me emotionally. With Martinu, it's a bit different I feel. I think a lot of it has to do with how his music has a bit more jovial disposition than someone like Shostakovich's for example (even though there are plenty of troubled moments in Martinu's music). Also, the way Martinu wrote with his attention to texture and how his music no matter how dense it becomes is rather transparent and clear to the listener. Shostakovich has a heavy hand in orchestration and came from more of the Germanic school. Of course, I'm not saying one way is better than the other. It's just that Martinu doesn't wear me down quite like Shostakovich. But all of this is a good thing, because it shows individuality and I love both composers for completely different reasons. I remember reading somewhere, perhaps it was on this very forum (?), where someone said that they can barely listen to Mahler, not because they disliked his music, but because it brought out such strong emotions that it made it rather difficult to get through one, if any, of his works in one sitting.

[kyjo]

That is a good strategy, Kyle. Reaching burnout is something I'm trying to avoid. It is interesting, though, that my enthusiasm for Martinu's music only increased with more exposure to his music. Sometimes I get in way over my head and, thus, burnout happens. It's quite easy for me to reach burnout with a composer like Shostakovich for example. His music is so intense and I truly love it, but, boy, do I have to be careful as his music can drain me emotionally. With Martinu, it's a bit different I feel. I think a lot of it has to do with how his music has a bit more jovial disposition than someone like Shostakovich's for example (even though there are plenty of troubled moments in Martinu's music). Also, the way Martinu wrote with his attention to texture and how his music no matter how dense it becomes is rather transparent and clear to the listener. Shostakovich has a heavy hand in orchestration and came from more of the Germanic school. Of course, I'm not saying one way is better than the other. It's just that Martinu doesn't wear me down quite like Shostakovich. But all of this is a good thing, because it shows individuality and I love both composers for completely different reasons. I remember reading somewhere, perhaps it was on this very forum (?), where someone said that they can barely listen to Mahler, not because they disliked his music, but because it brought out such strong emotions that it made it rather difficult to get through one, if any, of his works in one sitting.

I feel the same way about Shostakovich and Mahler - I love their music, but it's too deeply emotional for me to listen to on a regular basis. By contrast, Martinu's music certainly has a freshness and vitality to it that doesn't wear its welcome too soon. Of course, too much sunshine and happiness isn't a great thing either, and Martinu makes sure to keep it in check with his soulful lyricism and aggressive rhythmic passages.

[Mirror Image]

I feel the same way about Shostakovich and Mahler - I love their music, but it's too deeply emotional for me to listen to on a regular basis. By contrast, Martinu's music certainly has a freshness and vitality to it that doesn't wear its welcome too soon. Of course, too much sunshine and happiness isn't a great thing either, and Martinu makes sure to keep it in check with his soulful lyricism and aggressive rhythmic passages.

To all the above, especially the bolded text, agreed.

[Mirror Image]

Compositional Spotlight:

Bouquet of Flowers (Kytice), H 260



The radio cantata Kytice (Garland) was composed in the summer of 1937 and is dedicated to the painter Jan Zrzavý, a friend of the composer during his Paris years. Martinů wrote this cycle of pieces to texts from Czech folk poetry for solo voices, mixed choir, children's choir, and small orchestra on commission for Czech Radio, for which he had already composed the one-act operas The Voice of the Forest and Comedy on the Bridge. The cantata Kytice consists of eight movements, arranged in pairs of which each contains one orchestral and one orchestral-vocal movement ("Overture" – "Sister Poisoner"; "Idyll" - "Cow Girls"; "intrada" - "Sweetheart Dearer than Family"), except in the case of the closing orchestral-vocal pair "Carol" - "Man and Death". Not only did Martinů employ two pianos in the small orchestra as he did in the Tre ricercari and the Concerto grosso, he also added a harmonium. He chose the folk texts from the collections of František Sušil and (in the case of the "Carol") Karel Jaromír Erben.

The subject of death passes through Martinů's whole compositional output, from immature early attempts such as the symphonic overture ie mortde Tintagiles (designated as Op. 1 on the manuscript) to the death of the shepherd Manolios in the opera The Greek Passion (1954-59). It is represented in all the cantatas and oratorios Martinů composed, including the Czech Rhapsody (1918), Kytice(1937), the Field Mass (1939), Mount of Three Lights (1954), The Epic of Gilgamesh (1954-55) and the four folk cantatas from 1955-59. In Kytice, however, Martinů devoted a whole movement to death, namely the last one which is the most important and longest: "Man and Death" accounts for almost a third of the whole cantata's duration. Whereas in the madrigal "In the World is Nothing Constant" (No. 3 in the Madrigals found on the fourth compact disc in this collection), death is treated in a mood of resignation, almost reconciliation, in the final movement of Kytice it is depicted as something frightful from which man tries in vain to escape. In accordance with his interest at the time in medieval folk theater, Martinů uses horrifying tone-painting effects - the repeated pounding of the woodwinds, brass, and both pianos conveying the words, "Then Death shot an arrow through his heart and marrow, Death struck without warning on that summer morning", engrave themselves in one's memory upon first hearing and remain there forever as an archetype of fear of death. As in every morality play, at the end, the fate of an individual is generalized into a warning: "Now, good friends, hear my plea, take a lesson from me: My sad fate you will share, for Death you must prepare". But this wouldn't be Martinů if he didn't finish the whole work with music that - despite its text - offers consolation.

Kytice is one of those works of Martinů that are still performed more in the Czech lands than abroad. Perhaps this is due to its textual basis - more comprehensible, after all, in the composer's homeland than elsewhere. Perhaps an obstacle to performance has been the complicated performing apparatus, requiring, besides orchestra, two large choirs. The complicated international political situation and the fact of the composer's exile, however, undoubtedly had a negative impact on the number of performances of this masterpiece. Twenty years after it was composed, in 1959, Martinů mentioned it in a letter to relatives in Polička: "Anyway our vacation period, too, is ending and I'm looking forward to returning to Schönenberg. There we feel more at home and our friends are already looking forward to seeing us. Recordings are waiting for us there, so finally we'll hear something. Paul Sacher played them for himself and likes them a lot; he writes that they are recorded well. So I'll hear at least Kytice, which I've never heard."

[http://database.martinu.cz/works/public_view/184]

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Yet another masterpiece from Martinů. There are three recordings of this work: Ančerl, Pešek, and Netopil (each on Supraphon). The Ančerl is in horrendous audio quality (or at least to me). The Pešek is only available on LP (that's long been OOP) as it's never been issued on CD. So that leaves us with the newcomer, Netopil. Thankfully, Netopil's performance (+ the soloists, chorus, and orchestra) are absolutely top-shelf. Like the Field Mass, this is a rather curious work in Martinů's compositional timeline. It falls in the late 1930s while he still was very much in his 'Paris' phase, but, as I mentioned in a post somewhere else, it is also around this time where we begin to see more and more works of his inspired by Czech folklore. You can start to hear how the bedazzlement of Paris starts to wear off in his music and his longing for home is creeping into his music more and more. Anyway, I find this work to be gorgeous and I'm sure you will, too, if you love this composer's music.

[vandermolen]

This upcoming release from Toccata Classics (Vol. 3 in their series of his early orchestral works) sounds very intriguing, to say the least:

[asin]B077MQC5YY[/asin]

From the Amazon description:

This series of first-ever recordings of Martinu's early orchestral works has already uncovered much delightful music; this third release moves everything up a gear. The symphonic triptych Vanishing Midnight (1922) will prove a revelation: a big-hearted work of breathtaking opulence and striking confidence. Vanishing Midnight is as exquisitely lovely as it is powerful and dramatic Martinus first true masterpiece, but it is also his last full-on engagement with Impressionism. The two shorter works here Ballade: Villa by the Sea and Dream of the Past are colourful and atmospheric tone-poems, pieces of real substance and major discoveries in their own right.

This looks most interesting Kyle - thanks for posting.

[vandermolen]

Awesome, Jeffrey. You really ought to give Netopil's new recording of Bouquet of Flowers a listen. I think you'll enjoy it. For whatever reason, this recording hasn't received much press yet.



I've already listened to this new performance twice and have been absolutely enchanted from start to finish. A worthy addition to anyone's Martinu collection IMHO.

Edit: The Novak work, Philharmonic Dances, coupled with this performance of Bouquet of Flowers is great fun. It sounds a good bit like Martinu, but this comes as no surprise since he studied with him and Novak mentioned how indebted he was to Martinu in an interview I've read (somewhere).

Thanks John - looks like another tempting release. I've been listening to the old Ancerl recording of Bouquet of Flowers (with Symphony 6). I liked some sections rather more than others but will listen again. The Jan Novak work also looks interesting.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks John - looks like another tempting release. I've been listening to the old Ancerl recording of Bouquet of Flowers (with Symphony 6). I liked some sections rather more than others but will listen again. The Jan Novak work also looks interesting.

Please don't listen to the Ancerl performance, Jeffrey. It doesn't do Bouquet of Flowers full justice at all. A work of this nature needs much better audio quality. I believe Netopil's performance is on YouTube.

[Mahlerian]

MI, have you heard Tennstedt's recording of the Fourth Symphony?  Any thoughts?  I don't own the disc myself, but the Amazon reviews aren't very helpful (one of them proudly says that he didn't bother listening to the work).

[Mirror Image]

MI, have you heard Tennstedt's recording of the Fourth Symphony?  Any thoughts?  I don't own the disc myself, but the Amazon reviews aren't very helpful (one of them proudly says that he didn't bother listening to the work).

I have not, Mahlerian. But I've been considering getting it, because I do love Tennstedt's conducting. In fact....I might just go ahead and pull the trigger on it. Yes, that review was quite unhelpful and I made a comment on how unhelpful it was.

I will say I do question the "First CD Release" banner it has in the left-hand corner as this is an earlier issue of the same recording:

[vandermolen]

MI, have you heard Tennstedt's recording of the Fourth Symphony?  Any thoughts?  I don't own the disc myself, but the Amazon reviews aren't very helpful (one of them proudly says that he didn't bother listening to the work).

Am butting in but just to say that I do have this recording and enjoyed it - although a long time since I last heard it. I like the symphony so much that I am always open to different performances of it.

[Mirror Image]

Am butting in but just to say that I do have this recording and enjoyed it - although a long time since I last heard it. I like the symphony so much that I am always open to different performances of it.

Excellent, Jeffrey. I just bought it.

[Mirror Image]

Compositional Spotlight:

Ariane, H 370



As is well known, Bohuslav Martinů spent the last years of his life in Switzerland. Thence, from the place where his remains were later to be interred for exactly twenty years, in a solitary grave at the edge of a wood situated in a hilly countryside and called fittingly Schönenberg, he sent a brief message home to Polička on June 3,1958: "I am writing a small opera, in one act, also to take a rest from work on this major opera, The Greek Passion, which is costing me a lot of effort". The product of this creative respite was Ariane. Martinů based it on a drama by his well-tested source of inspiration and personal friend, the French playwright Georges Neveux, Le Voyage de Thésée; thus he made his second excursion, after Juliette, to the dream world of Neveux's heroes. He was thoroughly thrilled by the free imagination of both of these dramatic works. Here Martinů, whose early stage had been marked by a strong influence of impressionism, once again set out to give musical expression to scenes conveying a wealth of symbolic statements. Neveux is a master of implication, his themes disturbing the calm surface of associations, assigning to every seemingly commonplace sentence the potential meaning of a key message: "I knew he looked like you," Ariadne sings as Theseus kills... whom? Minotaur? His own double? Or himself? Ariadne's theme sounds at the end of Scene 1 (the opening tones of the opera's beginning, i.e., the first Sinfonia), and she introduces herself: "C´est moi. My name is Ariadne. And you are the stranger. What is your name?" Unanswered, the question remains a torso, the sole answer being provided by the fall of the curtain. The charming freshness of this play packed with oblique hints springs from the fact that, meaningwise, both the playwright and the composer worked with an admirably simple repertory, thus avoiding the severance of links between symbols and that to which they refer to--or indeed, from the fact that the characters of the plot are authentic, and that despite the mythological substance of the subject matter, clear parallels can be drawn between their dramas and the everyday life of mortal humans. Not even Georges Neveux's surrealist premise prevented his flowing imagination from seeing and capturing the worlďs reality - both in Juliette, and in Ariane. Ariadne's final lament is a ravishing confession of an abandoned woman, whose archetypal model can be found quite unambiguously in Monteverdi's Ariadne. Still, on reading those few lines offered to the composer by the original play, and comparing them with the dramatic effect generated by Martinů's particular operatic finale, one cannot but feel admiration. Consequently, it was only natural for Neveux to feel flattered by such unique musical final touches given to his work. Martinů made his own adaptation of the source play into the libretto, assigning it the form of a baroque monody with three instrumental passages (three Sinfonias) and self-contained dramatic sequences (three scenes, plus the closing aria). While the Theseus of Neveux's play harks back to the world of Greek mythology, the musical, and more specifically operatic analogy of such retrospection could be sought at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, and indeed, the early baroque model quite visibly underlines Martinů's conception. In fact, the singing bravura, on which especially the part of Ariadne in this opera hinges, was, according to the composer's wife, inspired by the art of Maria Callas. Martinů, who completed Ariane within a single month (between May 13 and June 15, 1958), did not live to see its 1961 premiere in Gelsenkirchen and in Brno.

[http://database.martinu.cz/works/public_view/292]

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I really love this opera. The whole Neo-Baroque atmosphere of this work is intoxicating. What do you guys think about it? I really love both the Neumann and Netopil performances, but I might have to give the nod to the Netopil recording for the astonishing performance by soprano Simona Šaturová.

[Josquin13]

Interesting thread & recommendations, thanks.  I've long been partial to Czech musicians playing Martinu's music.  They often seem more idiomatic to me in Czech music: such as violinist Josef Suk in Martinu's Violin Concertos 1 & 2, Violin Sonatas 2 & 3 and 5 Madrigal Stanzas, & Rhapsody Concerto for viola; Cellist Josef Churchro in the 3 Cello Sonatas, & 1st Cello Concerto; along with Rudolph Firkusny in the solo piano works, Piano Concertos, & Cello Sonatas 1 & 2 (with Janos Starker), and conductors Karol Ancerl, Rafael Kubelik, Karel Sejna, Vaclav Neumann, etc., in the symphonic works.

I haven't read through the entire thread, but I didn't see the following 2 CD Alpha set mentioned (sorry, if I missed it), which includes the world premiere recording of Martinu's newly discovered First String Trio, H 136 (along with very good performances of other chamber works by him)--if you don't know this music, it's worth hearing:

[asin]B001RIGD8C[/asin]

Out of curiousity, who do people like most for Martinu's String Quartets?  Sets by the Kocian & Prazak String Quartets (a shared cycle), Stamitz Quartet, Martinu Quartet, or Panocha Quartet? or any individual recordings?  I enjoy the Kocian/Prazak recordings--which have excellent sound quality, especially on hybrid SACD--but haven't heard any others.

[Mirror Image]

Interesting thread & recommendations, thanks.  I've long been partial to Czech musicians playing Martinu's music.  They often seem more idiomatic to me in Czech music: such as violinist Josef Suk in Martinu's Violin Concertos 1 & 2, Violin Sonatas 2 & 3 and 5 Madrigal Stanzas, & Rhapsody Concerto for viola; Cellist Josef Churchro in the 3 Cello Sonatas, & 1st Cello Concerto; along with Rudolph Firkusny in the solo piano works, Piano Concertos, & Cello Sonatas 1 & 2 (with Janos Starker), and conductors Karol Ancerl, Rafael Kubelik, Karel Sejna, Vaclav Neumann, etc., in the symphonic works.

I haven't read through the entire thread, but I didn't see the following 2 CD Alpha set mentioned (sorry, if I missed it), which includes the world premiere recording of Martinu's newly discovered First String Trio, H 136 (along with very good performances of other chamber works by him)--if you don't know, it's worth hearing:

[asin]B001RIGD8C[/asin]

Out of curiousity, who do people like most for Martinu's String Quartets?  Sets by the Kocian & Prazak String Quartets (a shared cycle), Stamitz Quartet, Martinu Quartet, or Panocha Quartet? or any individual recordings?  I enjoy the Kocian/Prazak recordings--which have excellent sound quality, especially on hybrid SACD--but haven't heard any others.

That's an excellent set, Josquin13. There's also a good documentary on the String Trio No. 1. Amazing that the original manuscript, which had previously been presumed lost, ended up in Copenhagen of all places.

As for the SQs, I like the Panochas on Supraphon the best of the two cycles I own, but I haven't heard the Kocian/Prazak or Martinu Quartet's cycles yet. I only own the Panocha and Stamitz, so I'm good on the SQs. I recall reading that Andre found the Prazak's performances (forget which SQs they performed) rather harsh, but, again, I have no knowledge of their recordings as I haven't heard them for myself.

I do agree that there's nothing like authentic Czech performances (in some works), but works like the symphonies, for example, really lend themselves to several different kinds of interpretations and don't, IMHO, necessarily have to be Czech ones. Like, for example, Jarvi's is my favorite cycle of the symphonies and he's Estonian with a German orchestra yet he, again, IMHO, nails the essence of these works I think as far as a whole cycle goes.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more from you.

[vandermolen]

Excellent, Jeffrey. I just bought it.

Great - let us know what you think John.

[Josquin13]

Mirror Image--Yes, in their Beethoven, the Prazak Quartet has a tendency towards over emphasis and exaggeration.  Some can find the accents over done.  I didn't notice this problem with their Martinu recordings.  But, as I said, I don't know any other Martinu SQ recordings, so I'll have to try to hear another set (or two), & compare.

Yes, I thought the documentary on the discovery of H 136 was very well done, and a nice added bonus to the Alpha set. 

Thanks for you reply.

[Mirror Image]

Great - let us know what you think John.

Will do, Jeffrey.