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Sunday, April 21, 2019

Bohuslav Martinů - Music for Violin and Orchestra Vol. 2 (Bohuslav Matoušek; Christopher Hogwood)


Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů
  • (01) Concerto da camera, H 285
  • (04) Concerto for violin, piano and orchestra, H 342
  • (07) Czech Rhapsody, H 307a (arr. Jiří Teml)

Bohuslav Matoušek, violin
Karel Košárek, piano (1-6)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Christopher Hogwood, conductor

Date: 2008
Label: Hyperion
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67672

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Review

A delightful second programme of Martin? violin concertos from Prague

After the previous issue of Martin?’s double concertos (11/07), Matou?ek, Hogwood and Hyperion here focus on those for violin with piano. In the Concerto da camera (1941), the keyboard is part – albeit a prominent one – of the strings-and-percussion accompaniment. Commissioned by Paul Sacher for the leader of his Basle Chamber Orchestra, it was premiered to great success in Switzerland (Martin? having just started his American exile at the time). With its fresh invention and lively demeanour, this remains one of his more popular concertos although it has never received its due on disc. This newcomer sets that omission straight, however, crisply performed and immaculately recorded.

The same applies to its companion pieces. H342 (1952?53) is a true duo concerto, outwardly conventional in format but expressively complex, as Ales Brezina notes in the booklet: “Enigmatic and highly personal…structurally driven by its emotional nature, [and] probably echoes the crisis in the composer’s personal life.” This was instigated by the end of an affair (ignored by Milo? afránek, along with the concerto, in his biography of the composer). Musically, the work feels like an accompanied sonata for piano and violin with each soloist supporting and occupying the forefront by turns and the orchestra – which enjoys its own “solo” passages – providing an additional dimension to the discourse.

The disc concludes with Jirí Teml’s idiomatic orchestration of the Czech Rhapsody (1945, not to be confused with the 1918 cantata of the same title), written for Kreisler and intended to be accompanied orchestrally; for various reasons the final version was never completed. Premiered by Régis Pasquier (who appeared on Vol 1) in 2001, it is a splendid piece, warm and lyrical and beautifully played. Strongly recommended.

-- 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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