Bohuslav Martinů - Piano Works (Rudolf Firkušný)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

• Les Ritournelles, H. 227
• Fantasie and Toccata, H. 281
• Piano Sonata No. 1, H. 350
• Julietta, H. 253: Act II, Scene 3: Moderato
• Etudes and Polkas, H. 308 (selection)

Rudolf Firkušný, piano

Date: 1989

Label: RCA

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Review

The solo piano music disc includes the irritable baroquery of the Ritournelles (classic Parisian years material) - hectic, heartless motoric brevities played for all they are worth. The Fantaisie and Toccata is resplendent with verve and effervescence characteristic of Martinů’s 1940s zenith. This is not quite up to the wonderful Toccata e Due Canzoni standard (try the Zdenek Hnat version on a Supraphon LP - long in need of reissue). The Piano Sonata is late Martinů written within five years of his death. It is wild, angular and awkward - not at all the work of a tired old man. This has more of the rebellious spirit of 1920s Cowell, Ornstein and Ruggles about it than anything else. Finally the nine Etudes and Polkas from 1945 in Firkušný's practised hands encompass the full range from hectic mitrailleuse impacts to rural idyll to hayseed barn-dance with the straw crunching beneath your feet.

The Artistes + Répertoires series has come in for a real drubbing from some of the site's critics. Some of them deprecate the cardboard double-fold sleeve and others rail against the brevity of the notes. The collage and graffiti style design is odd-ball, I'll grant you and some of it is too difficult to read because of idiosyncratic design choices but why get on your high horses? Until this set (a bargain price twofer) came along these two discs had been long deleted. I for one am simply delighted to see these fine performances returning to the catalogue at a price that is far more accessible to the general collector and to students than the original releases ever were. We too easily forget issues of social inclusion and if part of the cost of getting these discs in circulation at bargain basement prices is losing the highly detailed notes then I can live with that. On top of which what is the problem with card sleeves? That is what we had for LPs and they can take up less space than jewel boxes - CD for CD. The other dimension (leaving aside the disc itself) is ecological. Ultimately cardboard will degrade more easily than a plastic jewel box. When the next major audio carrier comes along, and after the second-hand market has been exhausted, we need to know that as much as possible of those sets discarded in landfill in 2050 along with useless LPs will bio-degrade rather than leave humanity with a plastic legacy. I just wish this had been a three CD set and then we could have added the Starker/Firkušný versions of the three cello sonatas on RCA 09026 61220 2).

— Rob Barnett

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Bohuslav Martinů (December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He was a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and briefly studied under Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk. Martinů was a prolific composer who wrote almost 400 pieces. Many of his works are regularly performed or recorded, among them his oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh, his six symphonies, concertos, chamber music, a flute sonata, a clarinet sonatina and many others. Martinů's notable students include Alan Hovhaness, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Jan Novák and many others.

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Rudolf Firkušný (11 February 1912 – 19 July 1994) is a Czech-born American pianist. He began studying music at age five with Leoš Janáček and later trained under Vilém Kurz and Josef Suk. He also studied in France, Germany, and Italy with Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. Firkušný debuted in the U.S. in 1938 and settled in New York after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, later becoming an American citizen. He performed all over the U.S. as well as in Europe and Japan, appeared with major orchestras, and made many excellent recordings. He taught at Juilliard and remained active until his death from cancer in 1994.

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