Martinů / Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani (Kubelik)

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Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano, and timpani, H. 271 (1938)
00:00 - Poco allegro
06:08 - Largo - Adagio
12:35 - Allegro
Charles Wilson, piano
Everett Firth, timpani
Boston Symphony Orchestra, dir. Rafael Kubelik (broadcast performance of 14 January 1967)
"At an early age Martinů started studying the violin, and already at the age of ten, music had become so much a part of his life that he was already technically proficient on that instrument and had written a string quartet. At sixteen he was sent to the Prague Conservatory. Here he was unhappy and unable to abide the rigid disciplines imposed there. In 1913 he joined the Czech Philharmonic as a second violinist, at which post he remained until 1923. Following another period of study under the supervision of Josef Suk, which proved fruitless, he went to Paris where, intending to stay three months, he lengthened his visit to nearly seventeen years. In Paris he was a student of Albert Roussel, and became acquainted with several conductors who greatly helped him by introducing his works at their concerts -- among them were Serge Koussevitzky and Charles Munch.
In the summer of 1938, Martinů accepted an invitation to Switzerland, where the composer began work on the Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano, and timpani. The composer speaks of working in the beauty and seclusion of the Alps while Europe and particularly his native Czechoslovakia were on the verge of the 'great tragedy that was relentlessly approaching.' He mentions listening to the news reports every day, hoping for some word of encouragement. 'Now in the lonely countryside,' he wrote, 'echoed the sound of my piano, filled with sorrow and pain but also with hope.' The work was completed the following year and premiered by the Basel Chamber Orchestra under Paul Sacher, to whom it is dedicated, in 1940. In notes for this initial presentation, Martinů said that the Concerto was 'written under terrible circumstances, but the emotions it voices are those of revolt, courage and unshakable faith, expressed by sharp dramatic shocks, a current of tones that never ceases, and by a melody that passionately proclaims the right to freedom.'
In later years, Martinů considered the Double Concerto to be his most important creation. 'It is a difficult work,' he observed, 'dissonant, but in my opinion the dissonances sound normal, as a result of the logic of the counterpoint and development...' The style of the exciting, sometimes ferocious, Poco allegro has much in common with Janáček's technique of building a large mosaic on a foundation of repetitive germinal motifs, but Martinů sets his material in more conventional forms. The Largo opens with a full-scale choral introduction followed by a canonic section, and proceeds as a dialogue between the orchestral forces and the piano. The Allegro finale throws us back into the headlong fury of the first movement. Toward the end one hears references to the theme of the preceding movement. The toccata motion relaxes and the music broadens to its conclusion in largo chords again reminiscent of the second movement." - Notes from the BSO program book of January 1967
Painting: Study for 'Fugue in Two Colors' (Newton's Disks), František Kupka

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@MegaCirse 3 жыл бұрын

Ce concerto se déplie comme un livre d'images plein d'étoiles, où viennent filer les oiseaux, tourner les farandoles, claquer les crécelles et danser les sorciers 🐾