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Martinu - Symphony No.4, Concertos, etc | EMI - Gemini 2643502

Martinu - Symphony No.4, Concertos, etc

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Label: EMI - Gemini

Cat No: 2643502

Barcode: 5099926435022

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 2

Release Date: 2nd March 2009

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Contents

Works

Martinu
Symphony No.4

Martinu
Sinfonietta La Jolla for piano and chamber orchestra

Martinu
Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca for large orchestra

Martinu
Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani

Martinu
Concerto for string quartet and orchestra

Martinu
Sinfonia concertante for oboe, bassoon, violin, cello and orchestra

Martinu
Pamatnik Lidicim (Memorial for Lidice)

Artists

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductors

Richard Hickox
Rafael Kubelik
Walter Weller

Works

Martinu
Symphony No.4

Martinu
Sinfonietta La Jolla for piano and chamber orchestra

Martinu
Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca for large orchestra

Martinu
Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani

Martinu
Concerto for string quartet and orchestra

Martinu
Sinfonia concertante for oboe, bassoon, violin, cello and orchestra

Martinu
Pamatnik Lidicim (Memorial for Lidice)

Artists

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductors

Richard Hickox
Rafael Kubelik
Walter Weller

About

Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) was born in the small town of Policka in the Bohemian-Moravian highlands. He was poor academically but showed great promise as both a musician and as a composer. He soon joined a student quartet and his town’s string orchestra and, by the age of 15, he was leader of the town’s String Quartet and he made his debut as a soloist. Public donations allowed him to be sent to Prague in 1906 but, although he revelled in the music, he hated the strict regime and was expelled; further attempts on succeeding years were also failures.

During WWI he was made a part time member of the Czech Philharmonic and this experience added significantly to his understanding on how to achieve specific instrumental sonorities. He moved to Paris in 1923 to study with Roussel and it was here that he acquired his love of jazz, which duly inspired a number of his compositions.

The earliest work to appear in this set is the Concerto for string quartet and orchestra, in 1931, the same year as he married Charlotte Quennehen, a French girl who had instinctively recognised his exceptional qualities and became his principal means of support. Her protection enabled him to compose freely. On a brief visit to his homeland in 1938 he realised that the threat of Nazi Germany would mean he would never see it again. This sadness purveys the Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani. The imminent fall of Paris meant that he had to flee, first to Aix-en-Provence and finally, in 1941, to America. Emotional turmoil prevented composition and it was a year in Jamaica that restored his will to compose.

He felt homesick, no more so than when the Nazis totally destroyed the village of Lidice with all its inhabitants. This inspired him to write the Memorial for Lidice in 1943. Serge Koussevitzky, who did so much for many émigré composers, assisted and much of his subsequent work is indebted to him, including his six symphonies (of which No.4, written in 1945, is included here) and the Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, bassoon, violin and cello soli with orchestra from 1949. La Jolla followed the next year and, in 1955, Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca appeared – a symphony in all but name which is now rightly regarded as a masterpiece.

Contents:
CD1
- Symphony No.4 (1945)
- Sinfonietta La Jolla for piano and chamber orchestra (1950)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Weller
Recorded: 27 & 28.IX.1979; Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

- Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca for large orchestra (1955)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
Recorded: 12 & 14.IV.1958; Kingsway Hall, London

Total Duration: 73.20

CD2
- Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani (1938)
[piano: John Alley; timpani: Charles Fullbrook]

- Concerto for string quartet and orchestra (1931)
The Endellion String Quartet [violins: Andrew Watkinson & Ralph de Souza; viola: Garfield Jackson; cello: David Waterman]
- Sinfonia concertante for oboe, bassoon, violin, cello and orchestra (1949)
[oboe: Nicholas Daniel; bassoon: Stephen Reay; violin: Andrew Watkinson; cello: Stephen Orton]
City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard Hickox
Recorded: 9 & 11, 12.V.1989; No.1 Abbey Road Studios, London

- Památnik Lidicim (Memorial for Lidice) (1943)
Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Ingo Metzmacher
Recorded: 3.V.1995; Sinfonie an der Regnitz

Total Duration 69.20

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