Martinu: Flute Trios / Promenades / Madrigal Sonata

Feinstein Ensemble

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
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Cat No: 8553459

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099445924

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: MARTINU

Description
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)Trio for flute, cello and piano Trio for flute, violin and piano Promenades for flute, violin andharpsichordMadrigal Sonata for flute,violin and piano The Czechcomposer Bohuslav Martinu was born in 1890 at Policka in Bohemia in a bell-tower, where his father, a shoe-maker bytrade, was employed as watchman. In his childhood he learned the violin from alocal tailor and made a local reputation for himself, giving his first publicconcert in his home-town in 1905. At the same time he concentrated attention oncomposition, although without proper tuition and lacking even the necessarymanuscript-paper for the purpose. In 1906 he became a violin student at thePrague Conservatory, but four years later, after relegation for one year to theOrgan School, he was expelled. His principal interest, in fact, continued tocentre on composition, and he pursued this aim during the war, which he spentas a teacher in Policka. In 1918 he joined the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra asa violinist and his ballet Istar, completed in 1922, was performed in1924. There had been a brief period of instruction in composition from Josef Sukat the Conservatory, soon abandoned, and in 1923, assisted by a scholarship, hemoved to Paris to become a pupilof, Albert Roussel. In the following years Martinu's music began togain a hearing, particularly through Talich in Czechoslovakia, Paul Sacher andErnest Ansermet in Switzerland, Henry Wood in England, Munch in France and Koussevitzky inthe United States.By 1931 he had established himself well enough to marry a young dressmaker,Charlotte Quennehen, although he never earned enough to allow even reasonablecomfort. The first performance of his Concerto Grosso planned by Talichin 1938 was postponed with the invasion of Czechoslovakia that year and inJune 1940 he and his wife hurriedly fled from Paris, four days before the Germanarmies marched into the city. With considerable difficulty they made their wayto Portugal and thence toBermuda, reaching New York at the end of March 1941. In the United States Martinueventually received commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation, for which hewrote his First Symphony. This was followed by further symphonies andconcertos, including a violin concerto commissioned by Mischa Elman, while in1943 his Memorial Stanzas, dedicated to Albert Einstein, was played bythe famous scientist with the pianist Robert Casadesus. After the war heplanned to return to Prague, where he had been offered the position of professor ofcomposition at the Conservatory, but was prevented from doing so by theaccession to power of the Communist Party. In 1948 he became professor ofcomposition at Princeton University, returning to Europe in 1953. He lived in Nice until1955, when he moved to Philadelphia to teach at the Curtis Institute and thefollowing year returned to Europe to teach at the American Academy in Rome. After a period inNice, he spent his final years in Switzerland, where he died
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