THE BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ FOUNDATION THE BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ INSTITUTE THE INTERNATIONAL MARTINŮ CIRCLE BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ AT PRAGUE SPRING 2012 MAY—AUGUST 2012 VOL.XII NO.2 WORLD PREMIERE OF MARTINŮ’S “ZERO” PIANO QUINTET IN BRNO PHOTO GALLERY DIGITISATION OF MARTINŮ’S DOCUMENTS JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL MARTINŮ CIRCLE contents YOU WILL RECEIVE THREE ISSUES OF MARTINŮ REVUE MAGAZINE 3 events AND AN UNIQUE CD BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ DAYS 2010 WITH THESE RECORDINGS: FESTIVALS 4 IMC founding members BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ Trio No.2 D minor / H.327 MAX KELLERHALS ● LUCIE HARASIM BERNÁ Max Eschig, Paris RECORDED LIVE IN DVOŘÁK HALL, 5 incircle news RUDOLFINUM (February 14, 2011) 1. Allegro moderato 6 festivals 2. Andante BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ 3. Allegro AT PRAGUE SPRING 2012 MAREK PECHAČ ORBIS TRIO – Petra Vilánková (Violin), JULIETTE IN GENEVA Petr Malíšek (Cello), Stanislav Gallin (Piano) GÜNTER THIELE Winners from the 2010 Martinů Foundation Competition – 2nd prize and Prize for the best 8 memories interpretation of Martinů’s work. – MARTINŮ ABOUT HIS FRIEND STANISLAV NOVÁK / PART 2 ● BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ Epic of Gilgamesh / H.351 – LETTER TO JITŘENKA MAGAZINE Cantata for Soloists, Speaker, Mixed Chorus and Orchestra Universal Edition, Wien 10 review HISTORICAL RECORDING OF PERFORMANCE IN VIENNA (June 21, 1959) WORLD PREMIERE OF MARTINŮ’S 9th International Music Festival, 16th Orchestral Concert “ZERO” PIANO QUINTET IN BRNO (with permission of Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel) JANA SLIMÁČKOVÁ 1. Gilgamesh 11 special series 2. The Death of Enkidu LIST OF MARTINŮ’S WORKS X 3. Invocation Philharmonia Hungarica, Wiener Singakademie, Paul Sacher (Conductor) 12 photo gallery Marylin Horne (Soprano), Otto Wiener (Bass), Murray Dickie (Tenor), MARTINŮ AS A TOURIST Walter Berry (Bass), Ernst Meister (Speaker) 14 edition MARTINŮ: NIPPONARI ef LUCIE HARASIM BERNÁ See www.martinu.cz – International Martinů Circle section reviews for information about IMC CD recordings from previous years. CELEBRATIONS OF THE CENTENARY OF RUDOLF FIRKUŠNÝ’S BIRTH, BRNO JINDRA BÁRTOVÁ 16 news DIGITISATION OF MARTINŮ’S DOCUMENTS NEW CD JITKA ZICHOVÁ 17 reviews DAWN OF CZECH MODERNISM THREE WISHES IN PROSPECT Smetana: String Quartet No. 2 PATRICK LAMBERT Martinů: Piano Quintet “Zero“, H. 35 18 events/news (World premiere recording) Novák: Piano Quintet 19 peephole Graffe String Quartet, Michiko Otaki (Piano) INTO THE BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ Radioservis, 2012 CENTER IN POLIČKA LUCIE JIRGLOVÁ For more information on the Graffe Quartet and Piano Quintet “Zero“ see page 10 MIMEFEST 2012 23 September 2012 events > Polička, www.mimefest.cz Bohuslav Martinů Theatre Behind the Gate, H. 251 opera-ballet in 3 acts Leo Štraus (Dialogs) Radim Vizváry (Director & Choreographer) Valentina Shuklina (Music Director & Conductor) Singers & Dancers: students of HAMU (Music and Dance Academy of Arts) Female singer ensemble Bubureza Chamber orchestra Quattro BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ DAYS 2012 b 2 December 2012 / 7:30 pm > HAMU Prague, Martinů Hall Concert of the Winners of Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Competition 16 December 2012 / 7:30 pm > HAMU Prague, Martinů Hall 19+20+21 December / 7:30 pm > Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall, Prague Robert Schuman: Märchenerzählungen for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, op.132 Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No.3 Es major, op.10 Bohuslav Martinů: Sonata for Viola and Piano, H. 355 Bohuslav Martinů: Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, H. 207 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Kegelstatt – Trio, KV 498 Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No.7 d minor op.70 Trio Impression III: Christopher Hinterhuber (Piano), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek (Conductor) Andreas Schablas (Clarinet), Milan Radič (Viola) Bennewitz Quartet Tuesday, 27 November CINEMA «MUSIC OF EXILE» 18.MARTINŮ FESTTAGE 2012 Bohuslav Martinů: Reconstruction of the 17 November – 30 November > Basel, Switzerland life of the Czech composer Documentary feature film on Bohuslav Artistic Director: Robert Kolinsky Friday, 23 November Martinů by the BBC from 1967 Titular Patronage: Madeleine K. Albright, ORCHESTRAL CONCERT Written by Anthony Burgess – Produced former United States Secretary of State; Zürcher Kammerorchester, and directed by Anthony Wilkinson Didier Burkhalter, Federal Councillor; Sir Roger Norrington (Conductor) Interview with the director Anthony Wilkinson Mariss Jansons, Conductor Kateřina Chroboková (Harpsichord) and the BBC-legend Brian Large Martinů: Divertimento (Serenade IV) Friday, 30 November JAZZ Saturday, 17 November for Chamber Orchestra, H. 215 MORAVIAN SONGS OPENING CONCERT – DUO Martinů: Concerto for Harpsichord and Chamber Orchestra, H. 246 Zuzana Lapčíková (Cimbalom and vocal Renaud Capuçon (Violin), & quintet) Gautier Capuçon (Cello) Saturday, 24 November FAMILY KONZERT Josef Fečo (Contrabass), Rostislav Fraš Martinů: Duo No. 1, H. 157 «DIVING BELL SOUND» (Saxophone), Ivan Herák (Viola), Martinů: Duo No. 2, H. 371 Martinů: On Tourne, ballet, H. 163 Ondrej Krajňák (Piano), Kamil Slezák (Drums) Sinfonieorchester Basel, Thomas Herzog (Conductor), For the detailed programme see Norbert Steinwarz (Choreography) www.martinu.ch/de/programm-2012 martinůrevue22012 | 3 founding members MAXKELLERHALS / LUCIE HARASIM BERNÁ Pianos and Orchestra, as performed by the Belgian And all of us, almost moved to tears, raised a toast piano duo Reding-Piette, who gave a fantastic to Charlotte and Bohuslav Martinů’s marriage in account of it. The audience were enthralled and the room in which 14 days later he died. For all of us, Dear readers, from now on this page will it was a tremendous success. it will for ever remain something amazing and feature brief profiles of the founding Martinů left the USA for good in the spring unforgettable. members of the International Martinů Circle. of 1956, and after arriving in Switzerland he Max Kellerhals served a requiem mass for the first stayed with the Rebers in Basel and later deceased composer at the Roman Catholic church In the 2/2011 issue we published an exten - on with the Sachers at Schönenberg, near Basel. in Pratteln on 1 September. At the funeral, the sive article on Mrs. Geraldine Mucha and Throug h out the summer of 1956, Max Kellerhals violinist Petr Rybář performed the middle move - the violinist Josef Suk. In this issue, we will saw the Martinůs several times a month. He ment from Bohuslav Martinů’s Sonatina, H. 262. focus on Max Kellerhals, a Swiss priest and described Martinů as “extraordinarily pleasant, Marcel Mihalovici and Max Kellerhals delivered not because he was a musician, but simply as a man. eulogies over the coffin. Following the mass, the one of the last close friends of Martinů still His humility, his calm, self-restrained way of embalmed body was committed in a coffin into alive. speaking were part of what made him Martinů.” a grave at Schönenberg, at the edge of the forest photo aleš březina photo Throughout his active life, MAX KELLERHALS (1918) was a priest in municipalities in the canton of Basel–Landschaft, near Liestal, the town in which Bohuslav Martinů died. Max Kellerhals accompa - © cbm polička nied Bohuslav Martinů in the final days of his life and participated in organising his funeral in On frequent occasions, Kellerhals and Martinů of the estate where Martinů had stayed and com - Switzerland and, twenty years later, the transporta - had long discussions in an open, leisurely and posed as the Sachers’ guest. tion of the composer’s remains to Czechoslovakia. light atmo sphere, and not only about religious In the summer of 1979 the exhumation and These significant events are referred to in the topics. transfer of the composer’s remains to Polička was following excerpts of an interview Aleš Březina Max Kellerhals was present at the premiere approved. On 16 August the coffin containing conducted with Kellerhals during the shooting of of the oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh, H. 351 Bohuslav Martinů’s embalmed body was taken out the film Out of Exile (Czech TV 1998, directed by in Basel in 1958. He was sitting in the first row, of the grave at Schönenberg, in which it had rested Jiří Nekvasil). close to the composer. He also accompanied for twenty years. Representatives of the Czecho - Max Kellerhals made the acquaintance of Martinů at the performance of Juliette, H. 253 slovak authorities and a group of Swiss citizens, Bohuslav Martinů at the beginning of September in Wiesbaden, Germany, in January 1959, the very including Max Kellerhals, were present at the 1955 at the Besançon festival, where he, a great last staging of the opera that the composer saw. opening of the coffin. The priest also attended the music lover, had come to attend a performance When in the summer of 1959 Martinů was hos pi - ceremony in Polička. of Rafael Kubelík. At the festival, Martinů’s talised in Liestal, Max Kellerhals became one of the Following Charlotte Martinů’s death, Max Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, H. 292 Martinůs’ closest friends. Charlotte Martinů wanted Kellerhals continued to take an active interest in was presented by the Belgian duo Janine Reding their marriage to be additionally blessed by the having his friend’s works performed, met soloists and Henry Piette. Church, and hence, on 16 August, Max Kellerhals and conductors, acquainting them in his cordial and After the Rebers returned from the USA, we visited married Charlotte and Bohuslav Martinů in church. lively manner with the composer’s personality and Rafael together at his orchestra rehearsals, including Their witnesses were the Rebers. music. Since the foundation of the Martinů Festival those in Besançon. At one of the rehearsals, a married We celebrated the wedding in his hospital room in Basel in 1995, he has been a keen promoter and, couple arrived and sat to the left of us. During the (where he later died) in the simplest, most human, as long as his health allowed, he also visited the intermission, Rafael came over and asked us: “Do you most friendly manner. After the ceremony, Maja Bohuslav Martinů Festival in Prague and all know each other? They are the Martinůs.” So, that Sacher took out a small case from her bag and gave performances of his operas in nearby countries.