Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1, H. 226 (recte 228/233)	00:23:42
1.	(Allegro moderato)	00:10:00	
2.	(Andante) att.	00:05:28	
3.	(Allegretto)	00:08:14	

	Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2, H. 293	00:27:42
4	Andante	00:11:53	
5	Andante moderato	00:07:30	
6	Poco Allegro	00:08:19	

	Rhapsody - Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, H. 337	00:21:19
7	Moderato	00:10:01	
8	Molto adagio. Poco allegro	00:11:18

Josef Suk - violin, viola
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra 
Václav Neumann – conductor

In 1973, together with the conductor Georg Solti, Josef Suk premiered Martinů’s first violin concerto in Chicago. This "Paris-era" concerto was originally written for the famous violinist Samuel Dushkin. However, it was later mislaid, only to be rediscovered and premiered some 40 years later. Josef Suk was a sound choice for the concerto’s second life; his 1973 recording with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (together with Martinů’s second, "American", violin concerto) won great accolades, including the Grand Prix du disque de l'Academie Charles Cros. In the wake of the two violin concertos, Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra could be deemed the third part of a trilogy written in the post-war chapter of Martinů’s life. Suk’s legendary recordings, newly re-mastered, are released in the year marking the 80th birthday of the violinist and the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. --- supraphon.com

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CD 1
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in D major, H. 149	00:29:15
1.	Allegro moderato	00:10:38	
2.	Andante	00:07:42	
3.	Allegro	00:10:47	
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2, H. 237	00:24:34	
1.	Allegro moderato	00:09:11	
2.	Poco andante	00:07:53	
3.	Poco allegro	00:07:26	
Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, H. 269	00:21:55	
1.	Allegro moderato (Comodo)	00:06:27	
2.	Lento	00:09:13	
3.	Allegro	00:06:12	

CD 2
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3, H. 316	00:29:30	
1.	Allegro	00:09:01	
2.	Andante poco moderato	00:10:54	
3.	Moderato. Allegro	00:09:34	
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 /Incantations/, H. 358	00:19:40	
1.	Poco allegro	00:09:45	
2.	Poco moderato	00:09:52	
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in B flat major /Fantasia concertante/, H. 366	00:24:52
1.	Poco allegro risoluto	00:07:43	
2.	Poco andante	00:10:19	
3.	Poco allegro	00:06:44	

Emil Leichner – piano
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra 
Jiri Belohlavek - conductor

This 2-CD set -- with Jiri Belohlavek with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Emil Leichner at the piano -- has first-rate interpretations of Martinu's 5 Piano Concertos and the 1938 Concertino. The closing Allegro of Martinu's 1938 Concertino is a fair representation of this entire set. Although only one of its nine movements, it will serve in this account as a microcosm or sample to consider various aspects of this music in contrast with the mentioned Naxos release.

The Czechs summon crescendos effectively in this movement, and can also develop contemplative passages of great subtlety. The rhythmic core of the music is also far better in hand than in the Naxos version, with much sharper execution. The sound spacing to suit the music's needs is also better considered in the Supraphon set: adjusting better in terms both of shifting instrumental groups into the back or foreground for emphasis, as well as in dynamics according to dramatic needs.

This results in a performance that is full of conviction: strident and razor-sharp as needed, yet well-nuanced where sensitivity is required. Belohlavek coaxes colour and ornamentation from the orchestra both to accent and add contour to the soloist's part, rather than acting in alternation with the pianist (Leichner) - who does not stand out as much in the fore as Koukl, on Naxos. So Belohlavek keeps the pianist more closely integrated with the orchestra (the same holds for the timpanist, incidentally, who also stands out much less than on the Naxos).

The Czech Phil's tighter ensemble delivers slow passages of great refinement while managing robust, hair-raising fortissimo execution when that's called for. This last is done with especially jazzy flair on the trumpets' climactic entry (at 5:10), where you can all but see the players rise and blast out their brief part with dizzy exuberance. Closer attention to the shape of what remains after this peak also brings out some more tightly-wound, eventful music -- just listen to those lovely, long lines of cellos and double basses plucking away, shaping the closing passages, leaving no sense of disappointment when the end arrives. --- Bert vanC Bailey, amazon.com

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Setlist:
I.
1. Hello, boy, hello
2. What's Up?
3. Will this go on for a long time yet?
4. You don't mind the sound of that instrument?
5. Hay! Musician
6. What's Up?
7. What hotel?
8. I believe ...it's a toy
9. Gentlemen, you are looking
10. Look! I was born in Perigueuz
11. Good Evening
12. My love is lost far away
13. Just like a star that returns onto the sky
14. Ah, I was afraid
15. She will come! She won't come!
16. Excuse me! Sir!
17. Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen!
18. Well now, the old folks are happy
19. Oh, at last!
20. Oh! Memories

II.
1. We are alone
2. Mercy, friends, mercy!
3. They're not following me?
4. You've lost!
5. Now, now! What are you doing here?
6. Did you find her?
7. What's all that banging on the door?
8. Oh! That's you?
9. Lento
10. All empty!
11. Good morning, Sir!
12. Excuse me Sir! Is this the dream office?
13. Your real life is only to begin
14. oh, it was marvellous!
15. Didn't I wonder why you weren't coming today?
16. You are the engine-driver of the Orient Express?
17. Leave the door half-open behind you!
18. Arrival of figures in grey suits
19. Little Arab, Old Arab, Voices

Julietta - Maria Tauberova
Michel - Ivo Zidek
Commissaire/Postman – Antonin Zlesak
Man with the Helmet – Zdenek Otava
Man in the Window – Vclav Bednar
Little Arab – Ivana Mixova
Old Arab – Vladimir Jedactik
Birdseller – Jaroslava Prochazkova
Fishmonger – Ludmila Hanzalikova
Three Gentlemen – Miloslava Fidlerova, Eva Zikmondova, Eva Hlobilova
Old Man Youth – Jaroslav Horacek
Chorus & Orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague
Jaroslav Krombholc - conductor

Bohuslav Martinu composed his tenth opera, Julietta, subtitled The Dream-Book, during the second half of the year 1936. He finished it in January 1937, and its world premiere took place on the stage of the national Theatre in Prague, on 16 March of the following year. Martinu was present there on the opening night, and according to surviving period reports on the occasion was deeply moved by the opera’s triumphant reception. Indeed, Julietta cast a mighty spell on Prague. The conductor then was Vaclav Talich, and the title part was sung by then famous diva, ravishingly beautiful and splendid-voiced Ota Horakova. Less then three decades from then this recording of the opera was made, featuring the day’s star singers of the country’s premier scene, its chorus and orchestra, under the baton of Jaroslav Krombholc. The performance delivered here by the soprano Maria Tauberova is truly dazzling, a creation raking alongside the artist’s greatest achievements. Her principal male partner, equally brilliant, was Ivo Zidek. All this said, here is a recording of Bohuslav Martinu’s Julietta which deserves a pride of place in Supraphon’s vintage collection – thanks to the endeavours of all the artists involved in its making. --- mdt.co.uk

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Cello Sonata No. 1, H. 277
1. I. Poco allegro
2. II. Lento
3. III. Allegro con brio

4. Variations on a Slovak Folksong, H. 378

Cello Sonata No. 2, H. 286
5. I. Allegro
6. II. Largo
7. III. Allegro commodo

8.  Variations on a Theme of Rossini, H. 290

Cello Sonata No. 3, H. 340
9. I. Poco andante
10. II. Andante
11. III. Allegro (ma non Presto)

Paul Watkins (cello) & Huw Watkins (piano)

Paul Watkins is one of the world’s finest cellists. He is much in demand throughout the world and although he has made several recordings for Chandos in the past, this is his first as an exclusive artist. He is accompanied by his brother Huw Watkins, with whom he has developed an extremely rewarding musical partnership.

The three cello sonatas of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu span the period 1939 – 52 and are full of rewarding musical invention. The experience of his long exile was often expressed in his music, particularly here in the Third Sonata and in the Variations on a Slovak Theme. If in the First, competed in 1939, the unease occasioned by World War II may be detected in the first two movements, the energetic finale, driven by Martinu’s motoric rhythms, prompted the composer to remark of its first performance: ‘It came as a last greeting, a beam of light from a better world (which is the opinion of others, not my own). For several minutes we realised what music could give us and we forgot about reality.’

In the Second Sonata, of 1941, the composer embraced classical forms, though the first movement is typically vigorous and energetic, in the composer’s most rhythmic manner. The second movement is full of passionate longing, with a gorgeous lyrical cello line, whilst the finale uses the composer’s characteristic motor rhythms, with powerful stamping gestures suggesting Bohemian peasant dances.

The Third Sonata, completed in October 1952, is the most immediately appealing of the three sonatas, full of attractive Czech melodies and offering essentially good-natured melodies and harmony – as well as humour, especially in the finale.

The Variations on a Theme of Rossini (1942), dedicated to Gregor Piatigorsky, shows the composer at his most wittily light-hearted, and offers brilliance and virtuosity in spades. The Variations on a Slovak Theme (1959) were written during the composer’s final illness – Martinu had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. They are certainly appealing and resourceful, but strong feelings for the distant homeland are distinctly audible. ---prestoclassical.co.uk

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1	Ariane. Opera in One Act, H. 370: Sinfonia, No. 1	4:13
2	Ariane. Opera in One Act, H. 370: Scene I	12:19
3	Ariane. Opera in One Act, H. 370: Sinfonia, No. 2	3:22
4	Ariane. Opera in One Act, H. 370: Scene II	12:41
5	Ariane. Opera in One Act, H. 370: Sinfonia, No. 3	1:10
6	Ariane. Opera in One Act, H. 370: Scene III	9:58

Celina Lindsley (Soprano)
Norman Philips (Baritone)
Vladimir Dolezal (Tenor)
Richard Novák (Bass)
Miroslav Kopp (Tenor)
Ludek Vele (Bass)
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra  
Prague Philharmonic Chorus
Václav Neumann - conductor

Martinu composed his brief, one-act Ariane (1958) in a neo-baroque style that ranges from melodically spare ruminations and interjections for the main scenes to brightly tuneful interludes (the introduction has an irresistibly lovely melody that stays in your head for days). The French libretto is based on Georges Neveux's play Le Voyage de Thésée, which dramatizes the story of Ariane, Theseus, and the Minotaur in a highly symbolist manner, with an inner drama that sheds light on the character's psychological states and unvoiced motivations.

Theseus has arrived at Knossos to kill the fearsome and murderous Minotaur. Upon meeting and falling in love with Ariane, he all but forgets his quest until one of his youths is slaughtered by the man-beast. Ariane's cryptic comment "he looks like you" gains significance as Theseus confronts an enemy that is indeed himself, or is he? Who then, was slain? His mission accomplished, Theseus departs, leaving Ariane to mourn the loss of her love in a magnificent, extended lament that closes the opera.

This 1986 recording features Celina Lindsley in the title role, and she is completely mesmerizing in Ariane's great, challenging aria. Norman Philips is at once blustery and tender as Theseus, finely spinning his rich baritone. Richard Novák uses his dark voice to great effect, portraying the Minotaur with an elegant menace, and the Five Youths are strongly sung by the Czech Philharmonic Chorus. At the helm is Václav Neumann, long a master interpreter of Martinu's music, and here he leads the ever-colorful Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in a bracing and highly idiomatic performance. The sound, though somewhat low-level, is clear and very well balanced. A delight from beginning to end.--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

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CD 1:
01] Symphony No. 1: I. Moderato
02] Symphony No. 1: II. Allegro. Poco moderato. Allegro come prima
03] Symphony No. 1: III. Largo
04] Symphony No. 1: IV. Allegro non troppo
05] Symphony No. 2: I. Allegro moderato
06] Symphony No. 2: II. Andante Moderato
07] Symphony No. 2: III. Poco allegro
08] Symphony No. 2: IV. Allegro

CD 2:
01] Symphony No. 3: I. Allegro poco moderato
02] Symphony No. 3: II. Largo
03] Symphony No. 3: III. Allegro
04] Symphony No. 4: I. Poco moderato. Poco allegro
05] Symphony No. 4: II. Allegro vivo. Moderato (Trio). Allegro vivo
06] Symphony No. 4: III. Largo
07] Symphony No. 4: IV. Poco allegro

CD 3:
01] Symphony No. 5: I. Adagio
02] Symphony No. 5: II. Larghetto
03] Symphony No. 5: III. Lento. Allegro
04] Symphony No. 6 (Symphonic Phantasies): I. Lento. Allegro. Lento
05] Symphony No. 6 (Symphonic Phantasies): II. Poco allegro
06] Symphony No. 6 (Symphonic Phantasies): III. Lento

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Václav Neumann – conductor

Neumann and Supraphon were first in the complete recorded Martinu symphony stakes. I remember those pioneering LPs - a mix of single discs and a very ungainly 2LP boxed set that married symphonies 3, 4 and 5 with all sorts of disruptive side breaks (you remember side breaks!). Eventually a 4LP boxed set was issued before the CD ruthlessly swept the unlamented vinyl off the retail shelves.

We are talking about the very late 1970s before the Martinu /Neumann LPs emerged in the US and the UK. The wonder is that it had taken so long for Supraphon to record all six. When they got around to it they did the whole project in Prague from January 1976 to September 1978. Before then you had to make do with various LPs and 78s: Unicorn's production conducted by Dr Michael Bialoguski (with the New Philharmonia - coupled with a - or the - Vorisek symphony) of No. 6, Ancerl's 5 and 6 (mono), No. 2 conducted by Sejna on Czech 78s, No. 6 on mono RCA (Boston SO/Munch), No. 5 on Louisville conducted by the tireless Robert Whitney and the LP that won over so many to Martinu , the stereo Supraphon of the Fourth Symphony conducted by Turnovsky.

In the CD age Behlolavek has recorded 1, 4 and 6 on Chandos. His No. 4 (another version) coupled with Otakar Trhlik's version of No. 5 is on a Panton CD I have been trying to track down. Fagen's cycle on Naxos has so far proven rather plodding and lacking rhythmic vitality.

On UK BBC Radio 3 we could console ourselves with Zdenek Macal (now a Delos man!) conducting the Hallé Orchestra in the First Symphony in the broiling summer of 1977. A couple of years before that Christopher Adey did a remarkable cycle of all six with the BBC Scottish SO. It was Adey's brilliant traversal that drew me further into the Martinu whirlpool. How I wish I had recordings of those Adey performances. Can anyone help?

The Supraphon notes (they seem to have been written in 1989) by Jaroslav Mihule (an expert on the composer who has written several books on the subject - sadly not translated into English) are exemplary. They buck the Czech trend of years gone by when Supraphon LPs were usually 'blessed' with hilarious translations into quasi-English. Mihule's information is date, place and person specific. Musical analysis is left on the sidelines. Biographical backdrop is carefully placed alongside artistic cross-reference. Models for imitation please.

The First Symphony was written within a year of the composer's dispossessed arrival in the USA. It was begun in May 1942 in Jamaica and finished quite quickly in 15 weeks - this the longest of the six. By then Martinu was 51 - a late age for starting down the symphonic route - although Brahms was also a late starter. Koussevitsky commissioned the symphony (alongside Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra and Stravinsky's Ode) in memory of his wife, Natalie.

The Second came within a year; and thereafter the symphonies were produced one a year until 1946.

Brian Large's Duckworth book on Martinu (long out of print) tracks over the development of the symphonic form. No. 1 is in a conventional four movement pattern; No. 3 reduced the middle section which developed further into an effective two movements (there are nominally four) in No. 4. The Sixth is in the nature of a set of fantasy variations. Large also claims the Frescoes of Pierro della Francesca and The Parables as symphonies manqué - effectively numbers 7 and 8.

The First is romantically inclined - thick with images of seas thriving with swirling plankton, effervescently irrepressible, the stamp of the Rite of Spring, the chuckle of Petrushka, the third movement a funereal reflection rising to a great string anthem - the equipoise of the whole work. Joy is unleashed in the finale predictive of the life force of the Fourth Symphony.

The Second is innocently pastoral - naively flowing in the gracious and serene manner of Dvorák in the Serenade for Strings and the Eighth Symphony. There are impressionistic traces as well. These were picked up from his Parisian years and parallel his First Quartet The French.

The piano often plays a noticeable role in the orchestral works whether or not designated as a concerto. In the Third the role is prominent - especially noticeable in the massive-feeling first movement. In the final movement there are Tallis-like moments as well as the insect buzz of the Sixth Symphony. The optimistic woodwind calls are superbly recorded by Supraphon's analogue engineers who also capture the sweetest of high arching strings.

While the Fifth and Sixth are popularly singled out as the strongest of the sextet my vote goes to the Fourth as Martinu 's most lyrical, heart-easing and dynamic inspiration - truly a gripping symphony. In the second movement Neumann outpoints the famous Turnovsky for tensile snap and malevolence. The brilliance of the brass writing in the last movement must surely have been influenced by Janacek's Sinfonietta and Ravel's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition.

The Fifth is, to my ears, Beethovenian with the stomp of Beethoven 5 and 7. Kleiber (fils et père) would make, and would have made, hay with this work. Neumann brings out the brusque vitality and violence of the score as well as its iridescent transparency and diaphanous translucency. While Number Four is a work of perfection - equipoise of poetry and dynamism - numbers 5 and 6 have always struck me as flawed in comparison though the Neumann gives the Fifth the best performance I have heard. In the finale Neumann and Martinu find ecstatic revelation in the line between melody and rhythm.

The Sixth is static - more easily heard as three independent fantasies than as a symphonic unit. Number Five has motion and emotion but misses the exalted thematic production and elation of the Fourth. Neumann makes of No. 5 the best case I have heard and his Fourth is only a notch or two down from the classic (and anyway unavailable) Turnovsky (reissued on CD very briefly on the American Urania label). Behlolavek on Chandos is also excellent.

The Sixth's murmurous buzzing (for all the world like a great cloud of locusts) may well be linked to the buzzing noise he heard in his head following a serious fall within years after he arrived in the USA (parallels with the whistle heard with the onset of Smetana's deafness and reflected in his String Quartet No. 1 From My Life). Neumann conjures the scorching updraft of a torrid summer's day - perhaps with memories also of the Mistral and the Föhn winds. Martinu has treated us before now to anthems hymned out to an impassive firmament and so it is here. In mastery the theme approaches Barber's Adagio but retains aristocratic restraint.

The Sixth Symphony is the only one to bear a title and like Sibelius's Seventh (and similarly final) symphony it cross-fertilises symphony and fantasy. Unlike the Sibelius the Martinu is in his three movement template rather than a monolith.

There are younger and, it has to be said, more transparent recordings than these Supraphons. Claus Peter Flor on RCA/BMG seems rather under-muscled though, truth to tell, I have not heard the CD of numbers 3 and 4 (if anyone has a copy please contact me at rob.barnett@ukgateway.net). Neeme Järvi is much more imaginative and is well worth hearing. He is handsomely served by BIS with the first purely CD and DDD cycle. The Neumann is stereo but AAD - not digitally remastered. Bryden Thomson on Chandos did the complete cycle and interpretatively his set is highly regarded although the Scottish National Orchestra (as it then was before it gained its 'Royal' handle) has come in for some stick due to various roughnesses.

Neumann brings warmth and élan to the symphonies. In the First Symphony there is a trace of harshness on the strings. Generally however the recording leans towards warmth and atmosphere rather than to transparency of detail. This works well most of the time and is well suited to the soundwashes of the Sixth. Number Four, which is an exemplar of plangent and luminous orchestration, is lovingly advocated by engineers, players and conductor.

This Supraphon is not a fashionable choice and its presence on your shelves may draw quizzical looks but try defying fashion and you will find this a rewarding and persuasive companion. ---Rob Barnett, musicweb-international.com

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Martinu - Piano Quartet No.1
A1 	– 	Poco Allegro 	
A2 	– 	Adagio 	
A3 	– 	Allegretto Poco Moderato 

Chausson - Piano Quartet In A Major Op. 30
B1 	– 	Animé 	
B2 	– 	Très Calme 	
B3 	– 	Simple Et San Hâte 	
B4 	– 	Animé

Richards Piano Quartet:
Nona Liddell – violin
Jean Stewart – viola
Bernard Richards – cello
Bernard Roberts – piano

Martinu's First Piano Quartet was completed in the same year as his six symphonies-- the works which taken together form his central achievement. It is a mature composition, written shortly after his settlement in the United States and nearly two decades after his departure from his native Czechoslovakia where he had studied with Joseph Suk, one of Dvorak's students. Blacklisted by the Nazis, Martinu moved to Jamaica, New York in 1941.

In his notes for the Garth Newell Piano Quartet's recording of the Quartet, Stephen Soderberg of the Music Division of the Library of Congress comments on Martinu's compositional techniques. "The entire quartet," he says, "is full of common early twentieth-century harmonic techniques--parallel fourths, chords created from stacking thirds and fourths and so on--nothing that, taken alone, is difficult for our ears today." One listening to the work is not enough, he warns, because of the intricate interrelationships among musical ideas in the movements. The "work as a whole only makes sense in the last movement" because of the tendency of twentieth century composers to use prefiguration, a process in which seemingly irrelevant materials introduced earlier in a work only become relevant near the end. Four or five listenings to the last movement followed by listening to the entire quartet, Soderberg says, enable the listener to connect musical events that are often separated by great distances temporally. Soderberg offers insight into how the quartet is constructed musically. The first movement quickly introduces a series of themes, the first a terse three-note motive passed between violin and viola. Although it recurs frequently throughout the movement, this urgent declamatory motive quickly gives way to a more subdued "sinuous" idea; shared between the strings in its first appearance, this theme will form the basis of the last movement. No sooner is this second theme established than the cello introduces yet another idea, this one showing traces of Moravian folksong, an influence from Martinu's childhood. Later, the subdued second theme returns and builds to a climax in which the piano plays the opening motive in heavy chords. A reprise of this motive in the strings concludes the movement.

Throughout the first movement, piano and strings share equally in the presentation of ideas; in contrast, the Adagio begins with an extended passionate trio for strings alone that concludes with a brief cello cadenza. The piano appears in a mysterious middle section playing "rapid roulade-like surfaces over muted strings" (Soderberg), but it soon falls silent, allowing the strings to complete their trio.

In a reverse of the instrumentation of the Adagio, the Allegretto opens softly with the piano solo in a theme that Soderberg says, creates a "gentle rocking feeling--not the sleep-inducing regular rocking of a cradle, but the mesmerizing, irregular rocking of a rowboat tied to a pier." If we extend the rocking boat analogy, we can hear the entire movement as "what happens to the boat as the water becomes agitated, calm, placid, churning."

Martinu's tempo markings for this movement reveal its five-part structure to the listener. After the piano introduces the rocking theme (poco allegro), the four instruments develop it with increasingly luxuriant harmony. The tempo quickens (allegro) as upward-rushing scales are passed between the instruments. At the point of the allegro's main climax the subdued second theme from the first movement of the quartet appears fortissimo. A brief andante follows with trills in the piano and arpeggios in the strings. As the andante fades, the rocking theme returns in the piano and strings (allegretto), building to a climax that concludes the work (allegro). --- chambermusicwilliamsburg.org

Chausson's music, at all stages, could be called psychological in its vaulting gamut of expression -- from blackest melancholy to mercurially manic high spirits -- traversed with startling suddenness by an unexpected modulation, a subtle nuance, a brilliant coup de théâtre. Indeed, the latter occur more often in his orchestral and chamber works than in his grand opera, Le roi Arthus, lending them a constant effect of shimmer between articulate darkness and blithe radiance. In the first decade of his maturity, in such things as the Poème de l'amour et de la mer (1882-1890) and the Symphony (1889-1890), this bipolar oscillation is tinged with a certain morbidity checked only by the application of formal procedures inspired by Franck. But from the mid-1890s, as Chausson entered his forties, a new prehension -- a hectically fraught serenity (or hyper-aesthetic twist on the "serene anxiety" of his mentor, César Franck) -- comes into play. Form and content, too, dovetail more deftly. The handful of works from this period are no less intense, impassioned, or volatile, but suffused with a new assurance that calls to mind Yeats' lines in his 1939 poem "Lapis Lazuli," reminding all that great actors "Do not break up their lines to weep./They know that Hamlet and Lear are gay; /Gaiety transfiguring all that dread." In this sense, the works of Chausson's last broken-off period have about them a tragic gaiety. One thinks of the Serres chaudes cycle of mélodies, the great Poème for violin and orchestra, the Quelques danses for piano, and -- pre-eminently -- of the sublime Piano Quartet. In marked contrast to the slow, agonizing gestation of many of his other works, the Piano Quartet was composed in a mere five weeks between July and September 1897. The cascading pentatonic theme that opens the work provides most of the first movement's Animé melodic material, with its peremptory head phrase and nether phrases lyrically shaped for contrast. Although the movement is written in orthodox sonata-allegro form, listeners are reminded, in a fine turn on Franck's "cyclic" practice, that it all originates from one long-breathed melody. Rapidly and with constant modulations, this unity in multiplicity unfurls its transformative fabric in coruscating brilliance. Marked Très calme, the second movement offers an orison-like lied, passionately worked, yielding to an imploring, insistently contrasting middle section before the lied returns with an air of wan melancholy. The brief third movement, woven around a folk-like tune, passes -- Simple et sans hâte -- with sad, balletic grace. A tempestuous Animé burst announces the final, long, balancing movement largely given to languishing, dreamlike evocations -- albeit dramatically rippled -- of themes from the preceding movements to conclude with a recall of the lied and an oracular reminiscence of the work's opening cascading melody. While the Concert for piano, violin, and string quartet (1892), among Chausson's chamber works, has achieved something like popularity, critics and connoisseurs rate the seldom-heard Piano Quartet a far finer work, and not merely because of its unintentionally valedictory geste. --- Adrian Corleonis, Rovi

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Walter Piston, Symphony no.6
1. Fluendo espressivo
2. Leggerissimo vivace
3. Adagio sereno
4. Allegro energico

Bohuslav Martinu, Fantaisies symphoniques  (Symphony no.6)
5. Lento - Andante Moderato - Poco Allegro
6. Allegro
7. Lento

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Charles Munch – conductor

Piston, a native New Englander and certainly one of the best-known composers in the Boston era (he held a longtime academic post at Harvard), enjoyed an especially prosperious relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Sixth Symphony, considered by many the composer's finest, was commissioned for the BSO's seventy-fifth anniversary season and was premiered by the ensemble under the direction of Charles Munch on November 25, 1955.

In his notes to the work, Piston wrote of the advantage of having a personal relationship with an ensemble and knowing its sound on every level, from the individual players to the unique personality of the entire body. Piston further observed that every time he put down a note, he could hear the sound of the particular player or section that would play it. Perhaps to amplify his point, he made particular mention of the fact that when composing the symphony he did not play a single note of it on the piano. Piston's observations translate musically into what is one of the richest-sounding and most colorful of his symphonies.

There is a particular Frenchness, an Impressionistic quality, to much of the Sixth Symphony, hearkening to the composer's years of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. The first movement is aggressive and rhythmic, at times receding to the effect of distant strings. The second movement is a brief, witty Scherzo, in which, nonetheless, one senses an underlying anger. True to its Adagio sereno marking, the third movement provides a calm oasis between the briskness of the previous and succeeding movements; its lyricism is enhanced by a notable solo part for the cello. The finale, propulsive and marked by syncopation, ends in a glorious, brassy burst. --- Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

The first of the late orchestral works of Martinu, the Symphony No. 6, "Fantaisies symphoniques," is truly awe-inspiring. Commissioned by Charles Münch of the Boston Symphony in 1951, Martinu completed the work two years later, a remarkably long gestation period for a composer of Martinu's fluency. But the concentration of the work and the freedom of the development was both a challenge and a goal for him, and he assiduously applied himself to its realization. In the Fantaisies symphoniques, Martinu takes the slow-fast-slow, three-movement form of Debussy's Three Nocturnes and La mer and the glittering orchestral palate of Les Six and imbues them with his own elusive symphonic procedures. Each movement grows out of the same three-note motif that emerges out of the blooming, buzzing confusion of the trills of the winds and strings at the work's start, and each movement develops the motif in radically different ways. The opening movement contrasts blocks of music moving at different tempos through different textures. The central movement is a scherzo of sorts, developing the motif in airborne colors racing over the bar lines. The closing movement grows through intensities and rhythms to a final cadence that vertically expands the three-note motif as three huge and quiet chords spread over the range of the orchestra. --- James Leonard, Rovi

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