Bohuslav Martinů - Music for Violin and Orchestra Vol. 1 (Bohuslav Matoušek; Christopher Hogwood)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

• (01) Concerto for flute, violin and orchestra, H 252
• (04) Duo concertante for two violins and orchestra, H 264
• (07) Concerto for two violins and orchestra in D major, H 329

Bohuslav Matoušek, violin
Régis Pasquier, violin (4-6)
Jennifer Koh, violin (7-9)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Christopher Hogwood, conductor

Date: 2007
Label: Hyperion
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67671

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Review

A splendid programme of Martinu double concertos for violin

At the 2003 Martinu Festival in Prague I had the good fortune to hear Bohuslav Matousek and Jennifer Koh give a spirited account of the highly enjoyable Duo concertante (1937) with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Written in Martinu’s best 1930s concerto grosso style, its three movements (fast-slow-fast) are limpidly scored, allowing the flowing, interweaving lines of the soloists to sound to best advantage; as the excellent booklet-notes say, “an extraordinary musical experience”.

For this equally vibrant recording, Régis Pasquier partners Matousek while Koh appears with Matousek in the Concerto in D major (1950). Unlike its predecessor, the later work is in the standard 19th-century concerto format – one reason why Martinu did not number the works – and structurally quite different. For one thing, there is no real slow movement, the central span (dovetailed into the finale) being moderate in pace with a più vivo central section. In atmosphere it is one of those fleet-footed yet serene works in which Martinu’s inspiration seems just to beam from ear to ear.

This first volume, in what will be a series of four devoted to Martinu’s concertante works for violin, is completed by another enchanting early double concerto, for flute and violin, penned in just 10 days in 1936. There is no hint of rush in its fresh and lively invention, the solo roles played with beguiling ease by Janne Thomsen and Matousek. Accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic – in whose second violin section the composer played in the 1920s – this disc is an utter delight from start to finish.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

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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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Bohuslav Matoušek (born in Havlíčkův Brod, 26 September 1949) is a Czech violinist and violist. He studied in the classes of Jaroslav Pekelský and Václav Snítil at Prague's Academy of Music. Matoušek  has cooperated with such conductors as Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta and Leonard Bernstein, and orchestras as the Czech Philharmonic and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1985 he co-founded and performed as the primarius of the Stamic Quartet. Matoušek teaches at The Academy of Musical Arts in Prague, and at The Janacek Academy of Musical Arts in Brno.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohuslav_Matou%C5%A1ek
http://www.bohuslavmatousek.cz/

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Christopher Hogwood (10 September 1941 – 24 September 2014) was an English conductor, harpsichordist, writer, and musicologist. Founder of the early music ensemble the Academy of Ancient Music (1973), he was an authority on historically informed performance and a leading figure in the early music revival of the late 20th century. Although best known for baroque and early classical repertoire, he also performed contemporary music, especially the neo-baroque and neoclassical schools, including many works by Stravinsky, Martinů and Hindemith. Hogwood also made many solo recordings of harpsichord works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hogwood

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