Bohuslav Martinů - The Butterfly That Stamped (Jiří Bělohlávek)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

• The Butterfly That Stamped, ballet in one act after Rudyard Kipling

Female chorus of the Kühn Mixed Chorus, chorus master: Pavel Kühn
Prague Symphony Orchestra
Jiří Bělohlávek, conductor

Date: 1986
Label: Supraphon

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Review

This is gorgeous music. The ballet, inspired by a Rudyard Kipling story, is one of those luscious, Arabian Nights sort of deals, and Bohuslav Martinu has fashioned a stunning sounding score that manages to sound exotic and oriental without ever once recalling Rimsky-Korsakov or the whole Russian school. In fact, though it was composed in the early decades of this century, the music most resembles the soundtrack to the movie Stargate. There's a particularly colorful and evocative use of wordless female chorus at the opening--an effect that's unforgettable. About 40 minutes in length, this is a highly enjoyable ballet discovery.

-- David Hurwitz

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Bohuslav Martinů (December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. Martinů began as a violinist of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. In the early 1930s he found his main font for compositional style, the neo-classical as developed by Stravinsky. With this, he expanded to become a prolific composer, who wrote almost 400 pieces, included 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He is compared with Prokofiev and Bartók in his innovative incorporation of Central European ethnomusicology into his music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohuslav_Martin%C5%AF

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Jiří Bělohlávek (24 February 1946 – 31 May 2017) is a Czech conductor. He was a graduate of the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and later studied conducting, for two years, with Sergiu Celibidache. He was chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic (1990–92, 2012–17), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (2006-2012) and the founder of the Prague Philharmonia. Bělohlávek gained international renown and repute for his performances of the works of Czech composers and has made recordings for the Supraphon, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Warner Classics and Deutsche Grammophon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_B%C4%9Blohl%C3%A1vek

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