Bohuslav Martinu Best Music

Bohuslav Martinu: "A cosmopolitan Czech modernist"

The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) had an international career in France, the United States and finally Switzerland. He wrote in a modernist and neoclassical style. Martinu was a prolific composer, who produced nearly 400 works, including his oratorio "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (1955), his six symphonies, concertos (these number almost thirty: four violin concertos, eight compositions for solo piano, four cello concertos, one of each for harpsichord, viola, and oboe, five double concertos, two triple concertos, and two concertos for four solo instruments and orchestra), chamber music (including eight string quartets, three piano quintets, a piano quartet, a flute sonata, a clarinet sonatina) and many others. Blending influences from Eastern European folk music, the neoclassicism of Les Six (a group of composers that included Poulenc, Milhaud, and Honegger), impressionism, jazz, and the modernist styles of Stravinsky and Bartok, Martinu developed a highly personal musical language.

Martinu grew up in the bell tower of a church in Policka, Bohemia. At the age of 10, he composed his first string quartet, and at 16 he entered the Prague Conservatory, only to be expelled for “incorrigible negligence.” He eventually found work as a violinist with the Czech Philharmonic, and fell in love with Paris while on tour there in 1923. He relocated and established himself as a composer within the French musical scene, writing in a distinctive neoclassical style. He experimented with jazz, a Bartokian rhapsodic style, and neoclassic fun-and-games in the manner of Les Six. An outstanding work is the jazz ballet for six players "La Revue de Cuisine."

Later, he came more and more under the influence of Stravinsky, but unlike many others, he became less like Stravinsky and more like a Czech. Perhaps he saw the relationship of Russian folk music to Stravinsky's highly sophisticated musical approach and found his artistic salvation. But any Czech folk influences were subordinated to a neoclassical style. At this point we have such works as the Suites for String Orchestra, Inventions for Orchestra, the First Cello Concerto, the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, the Second Piano Concerto, and the Concertino for Piano Trio and Orchestra. The period culminates in the late 1930s with such powerful works as the opera Julietta, Tre Ricercari, and the unrelenting Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano, and timpani - his magnum opus.

[Bohuslav Martinu at the piano working on his second symphony. U.S.A., New York, around 1942]

During World War II, Martinu fled to the United States, first traveling to Portugal before arriving in America in March 1941. Here Serge Koussevitzky encouraged the composer with a commission for his First Symphony, and Martinu was hired to teach composition during the summers at Tanglewood. His work opened up emotionally without losing its considerable craft. He became a major twentieth-century symphonist, writing four works in the genre during the war (he ended up with six). During this period, the work sings as never before. Outstanding works include the Symphony No. 4, the Violin Concerto No. 2, the Cello Concerto No. 2, the Lidice Memorial, the Piano Quartet, the Violin Sonata No. 3, and the Trio for Flute, Cello, and Piano.

The post-war period saw a renewed interest in vocal music. It includes such pieces as "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and culminates in his opera based on Kazantzakis' "The Greek Passion". The two major orchestral works of this last phase are his Sixth Symphony and "Three Frescoes by Piero della Francesca."

Martinů worked quickly and was a versatile composer. His extensive and varied oeuvre shows some basic constants: There is always a close connection to Czech folk music - his compositions are often lively and dance-like. Martinu's rhythm is particularly differentiated, showing an attractive tension between regular and irregular elements as well as constant changes in time. The harmony is relatively traditional, but has its own characteristics - completely new connections and timbres emerge; however, the adherence to an extended tonality does not exclude sometimes harsh dissonances. Martinu prefers freer, rhapsodic forms to conventional ones; the basis of his music is not so much themes as motifs that undergo complex transformations. While he was initially influenced by Impressionism, his encounter with the music of Igor Stravinsky and the Groupe des Six in Paris had a lasting impact on his work. From this time on, he turned to neoclassicism and incorporated elements of jazz into his musical language.

Symphonies

In considering Martinu's symphonies, it should be kept in mind that all six date from Martinu's mature years, and also that the first five followed each other from year to year. There are useful short descriptions of all six works, describing the First as "epic, tragic and energetic", the Second as "lyrical, poetic and vivid", the Third as "dramatic and bohemian", the Fourth as "colorful and joyful", the Fifth as "visionary" and the Sixth as "a song of longing and hope". They are Martinu's most prominent works and, with the possible exception of the Second Violin Concerto and the neoclassical "La revue de cuisine," the most often performed. As a group of symphonies, they are among the best the 20th century has to offer; think Nielsen, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Milhaud, Langaard or Shostakovich.

Symphony No. 4 (1945) 

The Fourth Symphony was composed in New York City from April 1945, and completed at Martinu's summer home at Cape Cod in June 1945. The work is in four movements and, according to the composer, grows out of a single motif. Here Martinu aligns himself more strongly with the Bohemian tradition of Smetana and Dvorak. The first movement alternates between lyrical and rhythmical material presented in variation. It shows the composer's rare capacity for thematic development. The music is animated by an inner light and confidence. The second movement, in 6/8 time is a Scherzo, marked by a rhythmically irregular Dvorakian leading melody. Here, too, there are many echoes of Martinu's homeland, and in the trio he writes an idyll in a small Czech village. The slow third movement is dominated by the strings with short passage-work for the woodwind. The dark-hued Largo is in a serious mood with complicated chromatism. The finale is an energetic reworking of earlier material and has hope return, to end with a shining hymn of joy and coda in C major. This symphony is the most joyous of the author's six compositions in this genre. The symphony was first played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugen Ormandy on the last day of November 1945.

Listen to: hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Orchestral Music

La Bagarre (The Fight)

The young Martinu wrote works depicting a football match (Half-time), jazz-dancing kitchen utensils (La Revue de Cuisine - see below), and crowds celebrating Lindbergh's flight in La Bagarre (The Fight). These are strong orchestral works that could be compared to Honeger's Pacific 231 and Rugby. 

Listen to: hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca

Cast in three movements, the 1955 work was inspired by the eponymous 15th-century Italian artist’s religious frescoes in Arezzo, which depict various manifestations of the power of the cross. Martinu had seen these frescoes in 1954. He was inspired particularly by "The Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba" and by "Constantine's Dream." But he largely played down any specific programmatic correlations in the score. Frescoes is characteristic of the composer in its essentially tonal style yet spiked with a harmonic tartness and rhythmic instability.

Martinu composed the work in Nice in 1955, and it was first performed in Salzburg by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik on 26 August 1956. There are three movements: Andante poco moderato - Adagio - Poco allegro.

[Detail from The History of the True Cross: the Queen of Sheba meeting with King Solomon]

The frescoes called "The Legend of the True Cross" form a sequence painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. It is his largest work, and generally considered one of his finest, and an early Renaissance masterpiece. Its theme, derived from the popular 13th century book on the lives of saints by Jacobus de Voragine, "The Golden Legend," is the triumph of the True Cross – the legend of the wood from the tree in the Garden of Eden becoming the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, via a tree planted on the grave of Adam.They are believed to date from after 1447, when the Bacci family, commissioners of the frescoes, are recorded as having paid an unknown painter. The large paintings would have been finished around 1466.

For more on these frescoes, see this website.

Listen to The Orchestra Now conducted by Leon Botstein:

Concertos and other concertante works

A professional violinist himself, Martinu wrote nearly 30 concertos or concerto-like works (solo or in small groups as in a concerto grosso). 

Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani

Written in Switzerland in 1938 and commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra, this concerto is based on the concerto grosso, its three movements scored as 1. poco allegro, 2. largo, 3. allegro. Its outer movements are characterized by a mood of anxiety expressed through syncopated rhythms, while its largo centers on a defiant, declamatory statement.

After a vacation in Czechoslovakia, Martinu worked at the Vieux Moulin near Paris. In September, he accepted an invitation to the Sacher family estate in Schönenberg, near Basel, from where he observed the deteriorating situation in Europe and especially in his homeland. The cover of the manuscript score bears the dedication: "To my dear friend Paul Sacher, in memory of the quiet and anxious days I spent in Schönenberg among the deer and the threat of war". Martinu completed the last movement of the sketch on the day of the signing of the Munich Treaty. It was premiered by the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Sacher in Basel in February 1940. Martinu traveled from Paris to attend the Basel performance, despite the difficult international situation. The Swiss composer Arthur Honegger was among the audience at the premiere.

Another contemporary composition with similar instrumentation is Bela Bartok's Divertimento for String Orchestra, also commissioned by Paul Sacher for the Basel Chamber Orchestra in 1938.

Listen to François-Xavier Roth conducting l'Orchestre national de France with as pianist Cédric Tiberghien:

Cello Concerto No 1

Composed in 1930, this cello concerto was one of the first works of Martinu's neoclassical period. The Catalan cellist Gaspar Cassado premiered it in Berlin with a small chamber orchestra. In 1939, Martinu rewrote it for full symphony orchestra and dedicated this version to the French cellist Pierre Fournier. Martinu revisited the work in 1955, this time thinning out the orchestration (removing the piano and tuba but keeping the rest of the brass). This version was also dedicated to Fournier and is the one usually heard today.

The concerto opens with confident music that sounds like Dvorak in his American period. The dark second theme also has a Czech flavor, expressively sung by the cello in constant interaction with the woodwinds. All in all, this is a boldly angular movement.

The heart of the concerto is the beautiful central Andante moderato, with its broad, reflective theme introduced by the clarinet and extended by other woodwinds and solo trumpet, a theme characterized by rhythmic shifts from measure to measure. When the cello enters, the theme takes on a sense of great beauty and peace. The movement builds to an impassioned climax before fading away with quiet, noble restraint.

The frenetically energetic finale opens with a vigorous toccata-like section in which the soloist is in constant motion. There is a contrasting lyrical Andantino before the brilliant surge to the final cadence.
 
The First Cello Concerto remains one of Martinu's most popular and successful examples of the concerto form.

Listen to: Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra with Emanuel Pavon, cello, and Matija Fortuna, conductor:

Rhapsody Concerto for Viola and Orchestra

The Rhapsody Concerto for Viola and Orchestra was commissioned by the Ukrainian-born American violist Jascha Veissi (1898-1983) and written in New York City from March 15 to April 18, 1952.

With the Rhapsody Concerto, Martinu began his last major stylistic development toward neo-Romanticism. His ability to build long lyrical passages that end in a powerful catharsis reaches its first peak here. The work has only two movements. The first, Moderato, begins in B flat major, Martinu's favorite key in his late works. After a large orchestral introduction, the viola enters with a lyrical cantabile melody. Although Martinu provides the soloist with opportunities for virtuosic display, the main character of the work is lyrical and serene. In the second movement, Martinu introduces a simple but strong melody in F major, marked molto tranquillo. After a fast middle section, Martinu returns to this melody in a moving coda.
(Based on the liner notes by Ales Brezina of the Hyperion CD Martinu, The Complete Music for Violin and Orchestra 3)

Listen to: Tapiola Sinfonietta, Jonathan Bloxham, conductor and Timothy Ridout, viola:

Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1953)

Bohuslav Martinů was a violinist himself, yet the piano color in many of his symphonic scores is his actual signature. The two instruments are assigned solo roles in the Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1953), commissioned by Benno and Sylvia Rabinof, who duly premiered it in May 1954. Written concurrently with Symphony No. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques), the remarkable work bears the typical features of its author's later work, combining restless expanses with simple intimate melodies and arching from its dramatic opening to the catharsis of its conclusion. Unfortunately, it is hardly ever performed nowadays – it is one of my favorite Martinu pieces. It's accessible, tuneful and has interesting textures with the violin and piano.

Conductor Petr Popelka of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra has invited some excellent Czech musicians to perform – the Czech Philharmonic's youngest ever concertmaster Josef Špaček and the highly sought-after pianist Miroslav Sekera:

Chamber Music

Trio for flute, cello and piano (1944)

It was in New England, in the summer of 1944, that the three movements of the Trio came to life - written in just 5 days. It has been called a refreshingly effervescent affirmation of Martinu's Czech roots. It is a radiant gem of bright sound and cheerful mood. The first movement is a buoyant dance-like structure in modified sonata form; the slow movement is a lyrical 6/4 Adagio opened by the piano, after which the flute and then the cello go their separate ways; while the final movement, introduced by a somber cadenza for the flute, is another dance-oriented movement.

Listen to: Elizabeth Kleiber, Flute, Luis Tovar, Cello and Deborah Emery, Piano

Sonata for violin and piano No. 3 (1944)

This is one of Martinu's most dramatic and darkest duo works. This is not surprising; the sonata dates from 1944, when Martinu had exiled himself to the United States and Europe was still struggling amid the turbulence of WWII. The first movement (Poco Allegro) reveals the piano's restlessness and tension in the very first bars. The adagio is close to Dvorak with its combination of tenderness and nostalgia. In the Scherzo "homeland sounds" are masked by "New World sounds" - Gershwin rhythms and Czech dances in symbiosis. The final movement (lento, poco allegro, allegro vivo) teems with contrasting drama and lyricism, and features a Dvorak-like nostalgia, evoking Martinu's Czech roots. This sonata - which is almost like a symphony - has long been a staple of violinists’ repertoires worldwide.

Listen to Ludmila Pavlová - violin & Alena Grešlová - piano

Nonet (1959) 

Scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass
Martinu's Nonet No. 2 was composed in 1959, the last year of his life. It was commissioned for the 35th anniversary of the Czech Nonet Ensemble, which premiered it at the Salzburg Festival, and published posthumously in the fall of that year. In three short and contrasting movements, the nine different instrumental voices interact with each other like nine people talking at a party. Everything is solo and no one is doubled. The first movement is buoyant and lively - it is full of color and texture and life. There is also a distinct "neoclassical" "Stravinsky" influence without being derivative. The second movement gives way to melancholy, led by the strings - worlds away from the first movement. The finale is perhaps the most varied, full-bodied of the three, with the most variation in its little five minutes of music. The last part of the movement brings a spirited coda and a quiet ending. Very rich and satisfying music that makes a compelling case for this composer.

Listen to Round Top Festival Institute

See my article "Best Cello Sonatas" on this blog for a discussion of Martinu's Third Cello Sonata.

Choral Works and Songs 

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a three-part oratorio for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra, written in 1954/55. Its premiere in Basel on January 24, 1958, and its performance at the Vienna Festival in 1959 were among the composer's greatest successes. Martinu wrote the English text of his work himself, focusing on philosophical questions. Neither the heroic deeds of Gilgamesh and Enkidu nor the description of the Flood are taken from the original text.

Compositionally, the work is characterized by great contrasts between the individual parts: there are sonically intoxicating scenes with a large cast as well as striking dialogues. The small second interval plays a crucial role as a motif throughout the work. It first represents the people's fear of the ruler, and later the ruler's fear of death. The chorus and soloists take on changing roles throughout the piece, and all participants participate equally in the narrative process.

Listen to a recording by the Czech TV:

Stage Works

La revue de cuisine (Suite from the Jazz Ballet)

A one-act ballet for sextet: clarinet (B♭), bassoon, trumpet, violin, cello and piano, composed in 1927. The dancers play a variety of cooking utensils that swagger through a naive episode of kitchen life. The marriage of Pot and Lid is threatened by the suave Twirling Stick. Pot succumbs to his flattery. Dishcloth makes eyes at Lid, but is challenged to a duel by Broom. Pot, however, is tired of Twirling Stick and longs for Lid's caresses, but Lid is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, a giant foot appears from the wings and kicks him back onto the stage. Pot and Lid kiss and make up, and flirting again, Twirling Stick leaves with Dishcloth.

The music contains complex time signatures. Other jazz influences can be seen in the instrumentation: the piano with its rich harmony and dissonance, the muted trumpet reminiscent of the jazz bands of the era, and the repeated use of pizzicato in the cello part reminiscent of the use of the double bass in jazz.

The Suite is in four movements: Prologue, Tango, Charleston, and Finale.

Listen to: Ensemble der KammerMusikKöln