Bohuslav Martinů; Josef Bohuslav Foerster; Jan Novák - Cello Concertos (Jiří Bárta)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů; Josef Bohuslav Foerster; Jan Novák

• Martinů - Cello Concerto No. 1, H. 196
• Foerster - Cello Concerto, Op. 143
• J. Novák - Capriccio for Cello and Small Orchestra

Jiří Bárta, cello

Prague Philharmonia

Jakub Hrůša, conductor

Date: 2009

Label: Supraphon

https://www.supraphon.com/album/48-martinu-foerster-novak-cello-concertos

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Review

Three delightful cello concertos, beautifully performed and recorded

"Swinging" cello concertos aren't exactly thick on the ground, which makes Jan Novák's Capriccio (1958 59) a particular delight, what with its saucy clarinets and saxophones and its lightly percussive ostinatos. It starts like Twenties show music, goes gently tiptoe for a 12 tone second movement then jives away happily for the closing Allegro, with "Lennie" and "Igor" never out of earshot for too long. Midway between the high jinks of Novák's Capriccio and the more formal expressive qualities of Foerster's Concerto comes the thrice-revised First Cello Concerto of Bohuslav Martinu, the successive versions having been premiered by none other than Cassadó, Fournier and Saldó (the version heard here, from 1956). Martinu's characteristically offbeat rhythmic computations make their presence felt right from the dramatic opening bars but it is the work's haunting melodic profile that most lingers in the memory, especially the first movement's second subject (at 2'10") and the uplifting central Andante moderato, one of Martinu's loveliest single movements. The Concerto is rounded off with a typically busy Allegro.

Josef Bohuslav Foerster's Concerto of 1931 is the earliest of the works programmed, as well as the most intense and the most obviously rooted in tradition (think of, for example, Dvorák and Suk). The work's heart is again its slow movement, where meaningful dialogue with other solo strings is so effective, the music often rather reminiscent of Chausson. I was amazed to learn that this is the work's world premiere recording.

I've delayed mentioning Jirí Bárta simply because there's hardly any need to: he plays with a warm, unselfconscious expressiveness that connects with all three works, and the Prague Philharmonia is with him every step of the way. The sound is excellent, the solo cello profile especially good.

-- Rob Cowan, Gramophone

More reviews:

ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 8

https://www.allmusic.com/album/martinu-foerster-nov%C3%A1k-cello-concertos-mw0001415732

https://www.thestrad.com/martinu-cello-concerto-no1-foerster-cello-concerto-op143-j-novak-capriccio-for-cello-and-small-orchestra/3704.article

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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_Martinů

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Josef Bohuslav Foerster (30 December 1859 – 29 May 1951) was a Czech composer and musicologist. Born and educated in Prague, he produced numerous compositions, but his music is not nationalistic in the sense of employing the idioms of Czech folk music. Foerster's compositions include five symphonies, other orchestral works including a symphonic poem based on Cyrano de Bergerac, much chamber music, at least five operas, concertos for cello and violin, and liturgical music, among other works, over 170 published opus numbers in all. Many of his works were dedicated to his family members.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Bohuslav_Foerster

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Jan Novák (8 April 1921, Nová Říše – 17 November 1984, Neu Ulm) was a Czech composer of classical music. Novák was primarily active in the 1960s and composed the music for several films of Karel Kachyňa. also composed music for the films of animators Jiří Trnka and Karel Zeman, the leading figures of the Czech animated film, as well as for Wir (1982, TV film) (based on We, the 1921 Russian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin). Novák was also a Contemporary Latin poet, under the pen name Ianus Novak. In 1970 he was awarded the magna laus at the Amsterdam Latin poetry competition, the Certamen poeticum Hoeufftianum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Novák_(composer)

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Jiří Bárta (born 13 March 1964 in Prague) is a Czech cellist, one of the foremost of his generation. He studied in Prague with Josef Chuchro, in Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow, and in Los Angeles with Eleonore Schoenfeld. Bárta has performed as both chamber musician and concerto soloist with leading artists at major halls and festivals throughout Europe, the Americas, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as Africa and Middle East. He has been featured on national television in most European countries as well as broadcast on many radio stations. Bárta currently plays a cello built by Dietmar Rexhausen in 2012.

http://www.jiribarta.cz/

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