Bohuslav Martinů - Sinfonietta Giocasa - Toccata e due canzoni - Jazz Suite - Claire Désert & Lidija Bizjak, Pianos - Orchestre de Picardie, Pascal Verrot - Calliope 2008

Sinfonietta Giocosa has always been one of my favorite Martinu works. The best recording imo is to be found on Chandos - I shared it perhaps a year (or more) back, no idea if the link is still active at this point however. This version is very fine, as are the performances of "Toccata.." and "Jazz Suite".

Enjoy.

Martinů-SinfoniettaGiocosa_ToccataEDueCanzoni_JazzSuite-Tzadik.zip

http://www81.zippyshare.com/v/pW3a1T9a/file.html

Bohuslav Martinů - Early Orchestral Works, Volume Two "The Shadow", Ballet In One Act Toccata Classics 2016

I think I have already posted Volume 1 in this series but then again I'm not certain. Anyhow here's Volume 2 dedicated to the early ballet "The Shadow".

Enjoy.

Martinů-The_Shadow-Ballet_in_1_act-Tzadik .zip

http://www102.zippyshare.com/v/6uGdWuZ5/file.html

Bohuslav Martinů - Cello Concertos - Concertino for Cello, Wind Instruments, Piano and Percussion - Raphael Wallfisch, Cello - Czech PO, Jirí Bēlohlávek Chandos 1992/2009

I have the original Chandos recording from 1992 but as I cannot locate my original this is my father's newer Chandos "classics" (same great recording remastered) version of the disc.

Enjoy.

Martinů-Cello_Concertos_Concertino-Tzadik.zip

http://www81.zippyshare.com/v/eoNOXN2q/file.html

Concertos for Cello & Winds: M. Larsson Gothe, Concerto for Cello & Winds - Martinů, Concertino for Cello, Winds, Percussion & Piano - Ibert, Concerto for Cello & Winds - H. Rosenberg, Symphony for Winds & Percussion - BIS 2002

To those of you who woke up this morning thinking "oh, I am really going to need a cello mingling with a wind section to get through this day" I say do not worry; you will soon be satiated for sure. A lovely recording this, and as far as the actual music most of you will likely only know the Martinů, and the Ibert. I didn't know anything about Mats Larsson Gothe before this disc, and I have a handful of the neglected Swedish composer Hilding Rosenberg discs (I do recall a good one on CPO) someplace. In the booklet notes Gothe Larsson says that his concerto grew to be an homage to Lutosławski, and was inspired by the Polish master's cello concerto. It's the true 'contemporary' work here, and it's a good opener. The Martinů Concertino is an early work (another version can be heard on a Supraphon disc I posted some time ago), and it's a tie for "favorite" along with the charming and unorthodox Ibert Concerto. Favorites on this disc that is, not in the repertoire. Hilding Rosenberg's Symphony is...indeed a symphony and in no way a concerto. Although the Symphony imo is lacking in personality compared to the rest of the program, it is still a fine and engaging enough listen.

Enjoy everyone

Concertos_for_Cello_&_Winds-Tzadik.zip

http://www77.zippyshare.com/v/ReykZbyD/file.html

Bohuslav Martinů: "Maxim Rysanov plays Martinů" Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola & Orchestra - Three Madrigals for Violin & Viola - Duo No. 2 for Violin & Viola - Sonata for Viola & Piano - Maxim Rysanov, Viola BBC S.O., Jiri Belohlávek - BIS 2015

This fine Martinů disc was a wise purchase by my father. The "Rhapsody-Concerto" for Viola and Orchestra is his favorite work by one of his favorite (like father like son) Czech composers. It's a late work that practically marks the beginning of his final major stylistical development towards Neo-Romanticism. It's a beautiful work and in the Hands of Jiri Belohlávek with the BBC Symphony Orchestra it receives a knock-out performance. The three other works are duos for viola & violin and viola & piano, respectively. Now I want to go back and listen to my other recordings of these three delights for comparison's sake, however I'm pretty sure that these are the finest performances of all three pieces! Without any doubt if you are a Martinů fan you are in for one hell of a treat! The sound is as outstanding (what one expects from BIS) as the playing from all artists involved. I believe I have posted all four of these works before, so no further comments are really needed.. 

Enjoy!

Maxim_Rysanov_Plays_Martinů-Tzadik.zip

http://www79.zippyshare.com/v/4tRdPEVA/file.html

Bohuslav Martinů - Half-Time, Rondo for Orchestra - La Bagarre - Intermezzo - Thunderbolt P-47 - The Rock - Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra - Petr Vronsky - Supraphon 1984

Here is another rare Martinů disc from the Czech label of labels, Supraphon.

After taking residence in Paris to study under Roussel, Martinů was surprised by the extent of Stravinsky's influence and a general flux in stylistic orientation due to frenetic experimentation.  He became the leading Czech music correspondent in Paris, relating his discoveries about the Parisian music scene to the Czech cultural press.  In his essays from this time, he frequently commented on the 'outdated' and 'Romantic' musical values he felt still persisted in Prague's musical life.  Among the earliest results from his Parisian years was his "orchestral–rondo" "Half–time" (1924), a work clearly inspired by Stravinsky's Russian ballets.  Although he rightly defended the work from being a Stravinskian plagiarism, his polemical essays imply his desire to provoke the Czech critics with the sounds of the Parisian milieu. "Half–time" was premiered in Prague in December 1924 by the Czech Philharmonic under Václav Talich, who would remain Martinů's most powerful ally at home until the fall of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1938.

Half-time celebrates 'American football'. As a frenzied crowd of fans grows ever more excited in the midst of a tense soccer match, a melody emerges fortissimo in the strings and harmonized in thirds, an obvious folk-inspired gesture. This tune clearly represents the crowd, en masse, in an excited state. It is the only extended melodic passage in the entire piece, and as such vividly stands out.

With "La Bagarre" the wit and exploration of the 1920s Parisian avant-garde trend continues, but with even more interesting implications. This is the work Martinů boldly offered to Koussevitsky when he spotted the conductor at a sidewalk cafe in Paris, and which the Russian conductor premiered in America with the Boston Symphony Orchestra to critical acclaim. Martinů submitted the following program notes for that occasion:

"La Bagarre is charged with an atmosphere of movement, dash, tumult, obstruction. ‘Tis a movement in grand mass, in uncontrollable, violent rush. I dedicate the composition to the memory of Lindbergh landing at Bourget, which responds to my imagination, and expresses clearly its aim and evolution.

In this symphonic rondo, 2-2, I have portrayed the tension of spectators at a game of football (sic). ‘Bagarre’ is, properly speaking, an analogous subject, but multiplied, transported to the street. It’s a boulevard, a stadium, a mass, a quantity which is in delirium, clothed as a single body. It’s a chaos ruled by all the sentiments of enthusiasm, struggle, joy, sadness, wonder. It’s a chaos governed by a common feeling, an invisible bond, which pushes everything forward, which moulds numerous masses into a single element full of unexpected, uncontrollable events. It is grandly contrapuntal. All interests, great and small, disappear as secondary themes, and are fused at the same time in a new composition of movement, in a new expression of force, in a new form of powerful, unconquerable human mass."

"La Bagarre", properly speaking, is a triptych, in which the intermediate phrase, usually free, is replaced (apparently by a more melodious movement) by a quicker tempo than that of the first and third, ending in a violent, presto coda.

Thunderbolt P-47 is the famed American fighter plane of World War II which this fiery orchestral scherzo aims to describe. On that note, I have to finish writing this later, time for work unfortunately..

Enjoy everyone

Martinů_Thunderbolt_La_Bagarre_etc._Tzadik.zip

http://www70.zippyshare.com/v/7vNQOndt/file.html

Bohuslav Martinů - Le Raid merveilleux (Ballet mécanique) - La Revue de cuisine (complete ballet, first recording) - On Tourne! (Ballet in 1 act) - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood - Supraphon 2004

This is a rather unknown Martinů disc from Supraphon, featuring lesser-known earlier works (Le Revue de Cuisine is likely the one piece here that listeners will know) which is a most exciting collection of ballet/jazz pieces; two for ensemble and one for full orchestra. All date from 1927, five years before Martinů’s move to Paris. This is one of my favorite early Martinů recordings; it is just overflowing with idiosyncratic beauty and charm-rare material done idiomatically and with an authentic zest.

"Le Raid Merveilleux" is concerned with the tragic failure of two French aviators, Charles Nungesser and François Coli, to fly across the Atlantic on 8 May 1927. Two weeks after the loss of the two fliers Charles Lindbergh succeeded where they had failed. Aviation references appear throughout the work's five movements. In the final segment, 'La Mer', the Morse code 'SOS' figure rings out on the piano rather like the homing signal in Barber's Second Symphony. The score is not at all dry as one might fear given the background, and the jazz influence is virtually undetectable. The outer movements 'Un Oiseau' and 'La Mer' as well as 'Les Cartes' (a gentle canon) are humane and quite beautiful and indeed the mature Martinů personality is very much to the fore in La Mer. I often listen to this score twice, as I do with all three pieces on this release...it's just that good to a Martinů freak like myself!

After not much of a pause we pitch into "La Revue de Cuisine". This is for six instruments and is in ten movements. The ballet music is playful, piquant, energetic and jerky and even carries a folk flavor (try the polka Prologue). Stravinsky (Petrouchka meets Pulcinella in chamber orchestration) is clearly an influence. There is also a strutting absurdist element akin to the Shostakovich First Piano Concerto. The Duel movement (track 11) is marked 'Tempo di Charleston' and that dance is prominent after the first minute or so. 'Oompah' and other popular dance elements flit to and fro through these pages. 'Le Fin du Drame' (track 15) vivaciously recaps the dances of the previous movements. This is the first recording of the complete ballet of La Revue. (Movements from it were famously included on a 1960s Supraphon LP later reissued on CD)

After the stripped-down and spare textures of the first two ballets, "En Tourne!" introduces the uproar of the full orchestra in signature Martinů full flow. There are eight movements with some amazing trumpet playing in the tumult of the first movement. (This is the CD premiere recording of the ballet On tourne!)

Hopefully I will have time for more rare Martinů after work (key word is 'hopefully'!)

Enjoy!

Martinu_Le_Raid_merveilleux_On_Tourne!-Tzadik.zip

http://www9.zippyshare.com/v/oUNU8SIn/file.html

Martinů - "The Butterfly that Stamped" - Ballet in one act after Rudyard Kipling - Prague Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek - Supraphon 1986

Martinů has written many works that happen to have intriguing, mysterious names ('The Strangler', 'Legend of the Smoke from Potato Fires', 'Comedy on the Bridge', 'Inconstancy of the Life', 'Alexander Twice', 'The Kitchen Revue'....and of course The Butterfly That Stamped!) Yes, the title of Martinů's early one-act ballet makes me smile a bit, it just sounds so odd without the actual story of the winged friend. This is one of my favorite Martinů discs, and it's a real rarity at that. Martinů based it on an exotic story by Rudyard Kipling, employing a wordless female choir to further enhance the 'oriental' atmosphere. The score is full of Eastern spice and Martinů pulls it all off convincingly and to beautiful effect, with a sense of floating sonically, as if in a dream. 

"The Butterfly that Stamped" (Motýl, který dupal), H. 153, has never been performed-as far as I know. Martinů completed the Ballet in Paris on March 9, 1926, a time when the composer was still finding his voice; it is safe to say however, and easy to hear-that his was unique from the very beginning-with avant-garde outings such as "La Bagarre" or "Half-Time" as well as otherworldly, enchanting and impressionistic tinged scores such as "The Butterfly that Stamped". The ballet is charming and fresh, delicate in it's orchestral color and musical narration, providing a finely contoured version of the humorous tale of a butterfly and his quarrelsome female companion. Martinů took the story from Kipling's "Just So Stories", several short and fantastic accounts of how various phenomena came about. The stories typically have the theme of a particular animal being modified from an "original" form to its current form by the acts of man, or some magical being.

In "The Butterfly That Stamped", we join King Solomon, his lovely wife Balkis, his other nine-hundred ninety nine wives, and two charming but quarrelsome butterflies. Solomon (who mainly goes by Suleiman bin Daoud in the story) is a very wise man, but is very annoyed with his surplus wives and all their quarreling. He thinks they are very loud and ungrateful. He refuses to use his magic to do anything about it because he believes it is just showing off, something he will not do. One day, when walking in his forest, Suleiman bin Daoud stumbles upon two butterflies arguing. The male butterfly tells his wife he could stamp his foot and the huge palace and garden would disappear. The king hears the butterfly's story and finds the claim amusing, and so calls the butterfly over. The king asks the butterfly why he lied, to which the butterfly replies that it was to silence his quarrelsome wife. The King tells the butterfly that if he has to, he can 'help him'. Meanwhile, Balkis has a talk with the butterfly’s wife, who says she is only pretending to agree with him, because "you know how men are." Balkis tells her she should dare her husband to stamp his foot, as he must be lying, and then she can argue with him again. Really, she is hoping the disappearance of the palace will shock the other wives into obedience.

The female butterfly dares her husband, and the butterfly prevaricates by telling her the king called him over to ask him not to, because he is afraid of the butterfly. The wife insists he stamps, and he goes to the king, who tells him he will make it happen to help control his wife, sympathizing with the butterfly's plight. The butterfly stamps and the palace disappears. This makes the butterfly's wife scared, and she promises never to argue with him again as long as he brings it back, leaving Solomon in fits of laughter. But when the garden vanishes, Solomon's less pleasant wives are deathly afraid, believing that the king is dead and the heavens are mourning the news. Balkis claims it was the butterfly who was angry at his wife, and they realize that if the king will do this for the sake of a tiny butterfly, 'what will he do to us, we who have been making him miserable with our quarreling', and they in turn become scared of Solomon's powers, and are nice and quiet from then on.

There's a bit more but this is likely already more of the story than most of you bargained for ;)

I hope everyone enjoys this rather unusual Martinů gem as much as I do!

Martinů_The_Butterfly_That_Stamped_Tzadik.zip

http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/47155357/file.html

Bohuslav Martinů - The Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is the first "known" hero apparently. The story goes back about 3,000 BC. It is a story

about "he who saw the deep" that is, death. Gilgamesh is not a traditional hero. He is depicted as a tyrant who uses his kingly right to deflower the bride-to-be at the wedding. Still, the epic celebrates him. The goddess Aruru creates Enkidu from the desert sand so that there might be someone to protect the people from Gilgamesh (not such a hero after all). Well Enkidu and Gilgamesh fight so that the men's brides will be safe. Gilgamesh wins and Enkidu becomes his sidekick. They travel around fighting beasts and monsters. One of the beasts has been sent by a goddess that Gilgamesh dumped. Gilgamesh kills it but the gods decide to kill Enkidu as revenge. Enkidu dreams of death ("who, my friend, is not defeated by death"?) and slowly fades away. Gilgamesh, in his grief, continues his journeys and sails across the waters of death. He races against time but realizes he cannot defeat sleep and will also die. He calls forth the spirit of Enkidu and they embrace. Gilgamesh (and the chorus) speak with the spirit of Enkidu asking questions about death, but Enkidu's replies are enigmatic. So it goes. With its mix of modally based orchestral themes, long-spanned rhythmic ostinatos, and phrases chanted by a bass soloist on a single note, this Oratorio sounds at times like a Martinů transmutation of Eastern Orthodox sacred services. It is a powerful work, deftly drawing upon three sections from the neo-Assyrian redaction of this sprawling and fragmentary religious cycle. Good stuff. Enjoy.

Martinu_The_Epic_of_Gilgamesh_Tz.zip

http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/9835627/file.html