Description
Bohuslav Martinu was a violinist himself, yet the piano colour 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 is hardly ever performed nowadays. Different is the case of Violin Sonata No. 3 (1944), created in the USA too, which has long been a staple of violinists' repertoires worldwide. Amid the atmosphere of the imminent end of WWII and feeling homesick, Martinu conceived a monument whose duration is that of a symphony, a work teeming with contrastive drama and lyricism, and featuring a Dvorak-like nostalgia, evoking his Czech roots. In comparison with the two "American" works, the Cinq pieces breves (1930), dating from Martinu's Paris period, contain far rougher harmonies and piquancy, attesting to a penchant for the Charleston, as well as a propensity to the contrapuntal style. On their album, the globally renowned artists Josef Spacek and Miroslav Sekera present Martinu as an astute creator of chamber music and concertos, a composer both international and Czech, widely known and still being discovered alike.
