Topic: Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

[Rinaldo]

What a great name for a piece!

Ha, never saw it translated before and the translation makes it sound like something weird or silly. In Czech, the name sounds quite poetic, as it conjures memories of childhood and the tradition of baking potatoes in hot ashes on chilly autumn days.

[Alek Hidell]

I'm going to repeat here that I'm jonesing for a Martinů box. Maybe not the complete works as that would probably be too unwieldy (and besides, I doubt if all his works have even been recorded) - but a "best of" set would be greatly welcome. You know, the complete symphonies and string quartets, a healthy dose of other chamber music, vocal works, opera, etc.

For any record company suits who might be reading, get to work on that, willya? (And a Morton Feldman box, too, while you're at it.)

[JBS]

Ha, never saw it translated before and the translation makes it sound like something weird or silly. In Czech, the name sounds quite poetic, as it conjures memories of childhood and the tradition of baking potatoes in hot ashes on chilly autumn days.

And there is an American resonance. One of the tales told of Abe Lincoln to us kids in the 1960s (not sure if there is any factual basis to it) was that in winter his stepmother* would give him a hot potato to carry to school. The potato kept his hands warm during the longish walk to school, and then serve midday meal.

*no wicked stepmother was she, btw, but apparently a model for any loving mother, to go by what Lincoln said of her.