CCMusic.com

Josef Spacek and Petr Popelka once again in the story of Martinu's music

and life! "I'll also be writing a violin concerto for an American, the same person

Stravinsky wrote one for; that will be good advertising for me, but also a lot

of work." For Bohuslav Martinu, the violin was the instrument especially close

to his heart, but it was also companion. He played in the Czech Philharmonic

as a violinist, and it was the violin that took him to Paris, the city which

enchanted him and become his home for 17 years before the war drove

him to America. More than once, the violin was his introduction to the "high

society" of the music world. The American from the quoted letter was

the star violinist Samuel Dushkin. The violinist praised the work and Martinu

("He really is a nice fellow. [...] he has a very exceptional sense for the violin"),

but he constantly demanded more and more changes to the concerto,

and in the end the performance did not take place. The score was lost,

then it was rediscovered and finally premiered in 1973 by Josef Suk with

the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Georg Solti. At the time when

Martinu's First Violin Concerto was being written, it was the same American

Dushkin who was collaborating with Igor Stravinsky on a different work based

on music from the neoclassical ballet The Fairy's Kiss; together, they were

creating a lovely suite titled Divertimento for violin and piano. In 1943, it was

Mischa Elman, another star violinist, who commissioned Martinu's Second

Violin Concerto. Elman also gave the concerto it's world premiere with

the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Serge Koussevitzky. With a new look

at Martinu's violin concertos, Josef Spacek and Petr Popelka are following

up on their acclaimed album with Martinu's Concerto for violin, piano, and

orchestra (Supraphon 2023). Once again, they prove that there is always

something to discover and to admire in the music of Bohuslav Martinu.