Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)

[cilgwyn]

Thank you very much for your replies. Mirror Image,I love Dvorak,but I actually haven't heard The Spectre's Bride. I have that high on my 'want' list. If only I had money for every recording I want?!! I recently spent a huge wad on Roussel and Honegger. More of that in the appropriate threads;but I just can't get enough of their music. You'll be pleased to know I bought some of the recordings from reading your posts!

[Mirror Image]

Thank you very much for your replies. Mirror Image,I love Dvorak,but I actually haven't heard The Spectre's Bride. I have that high on my 'want' list. If only I had money for every recording I want?!! I recently spent a huge wad on Roussel and Honegger. More of that in the appropriate threads;but I just can't get enough of their music. You'll be pleased to know I bought some of the recordings from reading your posts!

Excellent, cilgwyn. Yeah, there's a lot of recordings that I definitely want to get but just can't afford. Honegger is always a good buy, though.

[vandermolen]

Thank you very much for your replies. Mirror Image,I love Dvorak,but I actually haven't heard The Spectre's Bride. I have that high on my 'want' list. If only I had money for every recording I want?!! I recently spent a huge wad on Roussel and Honegger. More of that in the appropriate threads;but I just can't get enough of their music. You'll be pleased to know I bought some of the recordings from reading your posts!

I must listen to 'The Spectre's Bride' too. Oddly enough I have a historic recording of it as it is coupled with one of my very favourite works, Novak's 'The Storm', which I can't recommend strongly enough if you don't know it:
[asin]B00005OBZ5[/asin]

[cilgwyn]

I am given to understand that the Krombholc is consisered to be one of the finest,if not THE finest recording of this work. Sadly,the set with the delightfully spooky artwork (pictured in your post) is always out of my price range. Surely,a certain well known Amazon seller has a cheap copy in their warehouse somewhere?!! Reissues with less evocative artwork are available at lower prices,however!!

[cilgwyn]

Indeed,Mirror Image! I recall your posts about Dutoit's Honegger and Roussel. I admit to buying those because they were cheap!! I quite liked what I heard on those cds.....but then I get Karajan and Baudo (also Munch) in Honegger and Cluytens,Martinon,Dervaux (and Prêtre,to some degree) in Roussel and there is simply no comparison.......my mind was blown!! Suddely,I can't stop listening to these composers.....yet,I had those Dutoit recordings for a couple of years and they hardly got played!
What is it about Dutoit? For such a successful conductor so many of his performances seem so bland?!!

[Mirror Image]

Indeed,Mirror Image! I recall your posts about Dutoit's Honegger and Roussel. I admit to buying those because they were cheap!! I quite liked what I heard on those cds.....but then I get Karajan and Baudo (also Munch) in Honegger and Cluytens,Martinon,Dervaux (and Prêtre,to some degree) in Roussel and there is simply no comparison.......my mind was blown!! Suddely,I can't stop listening to these composers.....yet,I had those Dutoit recordings for a couple of years and they hardly got played!
What is it about Dutoit? For such a successful conductor so many of his performances seem so bland?!!

I don't think Dutoit does well with darker, more turbulent music. He's outstanding with Ravel and Debussy for example, but you give him music that requires an acidic edge to it and he pretty much smoothes it over. The surface is always lovely with Dutoit, but I don't feel his heart was truly in Honegger's or Roussel's music, although I have to hand it to him, he did do a good job in Roussel's Symphony No. 1 which is essentially an Impressionistic work anyway.

[cilgwyn]

Agreed! I was going to say that I'm quite happy with his performance of Roussel's First. I think you've nailed Dutoit pretty well,there!

[Mirror Image]

Any news on the Martinů front? It seems I'm heading into another phase, which when I listen to one work of his, I end up listening to 20 of them.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Any news on the Martinů front? It seems I'm heading into another phase, which when I listen to one work of his, I end up listening to 20 of them.

I have that proclivity, too, so in all civility, don't get me started.

[Mirror Image]

I have that proclivity, too, so in all civility, don't get me started.

Yeah, once you turn the tap on, it's hard to turn it off.

[Mirror Image]

Well, I resisted a Martinů phase by making a detour with Nielsen and Elgar.

[Brian]

Any news on the Martinů front? It seems I'm heading into another phase, which when I listen to one work of his, I end up listening to 20 of them.

Yes, I just wrote a review of the fab new BIS CD with violist Maxim Rysanov, compiling much of his viola music (Rhapsody-Concerto with BBC/Belohlavek, viola and piano sonata, duos with violin).

The works on the disc all date from post-WWII, and the Concerto and Sonata in particular are in a very similar autumnal lyrical vein. Both in two moderately-paced movements, too.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, I just wrote a review of the fab new BIS CD with violist Maxim Rysanov, compiling much of his viola music (Rhapsody-Concerto with BBC/Belohlavek, viola and piano sonata, duos with violin).

The works on the disc all date from post-WWII, and the Concerto and Sonata in particular are in a very similar autumnal lyrical vein. Both in two moderately-paced movements, too.

Funny you mention this, Brian. I had just bought this recording a bit earlier. Good to hear that you enjoyed it.

[Rinaldo]

Just returned from a production of Julietta at the National Theatre in Prague. Such an intriguing work! I especially loved the 'memories salesman' and the whole third act, set in a 'bureau of dreams'.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Saturday's concert:

Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor

Dvořák: The Golden Spinning Wheel
Martinů: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Admittedly Gilgamesh isn't a Top 10 Martinu work for me, but it's pretty spectacular, and this was probably my only chance ever to hear it live. In any case, it was a really impressive performance, with great drama at the major climactic points, such as the combat between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and the final poignant visit to the underworld.

All the forces involved played very well - especially impressive, as I doubt any of them had performed this work before. The English text was used rather than the Czech one, probably an intelligent concession.

As usual at our wonderful lakeside free concert festival, thousands of people came out for this obscure, demanding piece and gave it a fine ovation at the end. Sort of makes you optimistic for the future of classical music, eh?

[Karl Henning]

Cool!

[North Star]

Saturday's concert:

Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor

Dvořák: The Golden Spinning Wheel
Martinů: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Admittedly Gilgamesh isn't a Top 10 Martinu work for me, but it's pretty spectacular, and this was probably my only chance ever to hear it live. In any case, it was a really impressive performance, with great drama at the major climactic points, such as the combat between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and the final poignant visit to the underworld.

All the forces involved played very well - especially impressive, as I doubt any of them had performed this work before. The English text was used rather than the Czech one, probably an intelligent concession.

As usual at our wonderful lakeside free concert festival, thousands of people came out for this obscure, demanding piece and gave it a fine ovation at the end. Sort of makes you optimistic for the future of classical music, eh?

Very intelligent, except that it's not a concession:

Martinů wrote his text in English, based on the translation of in hexameters by Reginald Campbell Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamish (1928),[3] in his own style, choosing freely what would fit his music best.[4] Martinů would have preferred to compose it to a text in Czech and, according to his biographer Miloš Šafránek, he regretted hearing too late about the recent Czech translation of the Epic by poet Lubor Matouš.[5] Later, Ferdinand Pujman translated Martinů's text on the basis of Matouš' work for what became Epos o Gilgamešovi.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epic_of_Gilgamesh_(Martinů)

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Intelligent choice, then. The only recordings of this work that I'm aware of are in Czech, so I assumed that was the "default" version.

Someone really ought to record the English version.

[North Star]

Intelligent choice, then. The only recordings of this work that I'm aware of are in Czech, so I assumed that was the "default" version.

Someone really ought to record the English version.

It certainly was a surprise to me too, when I learned of this. And yes, there should be a recording of the English version. Belohlavek with the BBC forces perhaps.

[not edward]

Intelligent choice, then. The only recordings of this work that I'm aware of are in Czech, so I assumed that was the "default" version.

Someone really ought to record the English version.

There's a weird hybrid version under Belohlavek with English narration and Czech singing. Given that this is of a Proms performance with the BBC Symphony and Chorus, I think this was an opportunity missed.

I'd like to have a version with the Czech Philharmonic. Both of the commercial recordings are with lesser orchestras (the Prague Philharmonic under Belohlavek and the Slovak Philharmonic under Kosler), and it shows.

If I had to pick from them, I'd take Kosler hands down. It's depressing that a conductor of his ability was reduced to making recordings for cheaper-than-Naxos labels in later life.