Bohuslav Martinů

September – December 2001

40 Years with the Name Martinů Martinů in a Different Light Martinů Events Martinů and his Homes in Nice Today News Boston’s Martinů on Tour Where Martinů is at Home

Third issue

The International Bohuslav Martinů Society The Bohuslav Martinů Institute CONTENTS

WELCOME Karel Van Eycken ...... 3

40 YEARS WITH THE NAME MARTINŮ The Bohuslav Martinů Piano Quartet will Celebrate a Major Anniversary Next Season Emil Leichner ...... 4

A BLUE DOMAIN Stuart Wilson ...... 5

MARTINŮ EVENTS 2001 ...... 6 - 8

BOSTON’S MARTINŮ ON TOUR Gregory Terian ...... 7

MEMBERS’ DIARY ...... 8

ANNOUNCEMENT Gramophone Award for Magdalena Kožená ...... 8

MARTINŮ IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT The Musical Film for Television as a Form of Interpreting Chamber Stage Works by Bohuslav Martinů Jiří Nekvasil ...... 9

MARTINŮ AND HIS HOMES IN NICE TODAY Karel Van Eycken and Marcel J. Schneider ...... 12

FROM GREG TERIAN’S MARTINŮ REVIEW in The Dvořák Society Newsletter ...... 13

NEWS ...... 14 - 15

DUOS AND TRIO FOR STRINGS Review Sandra Bergmannová ...... 15

BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ’S CORRESPONDENCE IN THE MUSEUM OF NATIONAL LITERATURE IN PRAGUE Kateřina Maýrová ...... 16

LONDON CONFERENCE ON 20TH CENTURY MUSIC Gregory Terian ...... 17

WHERE MARTINŮ IS AT HOME The Bohuslav Martinů Memorial in Polička Ludmila Sadílková ...... 18

THE 2001 INTERNATIONAL BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ MUSIC FESTIVAL IN BASLE ...... 19

THE BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ FESTIVAL 2001 IN PRAGUE ...... 20

2 Welcome Dear Member, France: the spirit of Martinů is still alive there! Here we are with our latest Newsletter. As always, A more serious article is provided by Mr. Nekvasil INVITATION it includes announcements of events and articles about Martinů and operatic films. We know that Sitting Martinů was a real avant-gardist by virtue of on various topics. of the board First of all, I should like to devote substantial at- his ballets and operas using film, or where film tention to the Bohuslav Martinů Festival 2001 in - a new medium at the time - was a real part of of directors IBMS the composition. Prague coming up in December. Go to the last page of this 10th December 2001 On this page you will also find a list of members of the So- Newsletter to find out about the program. If you look at the 10 a.m. works to be performed you will find a most exciting “suite”; ciety. This is, I think, a real portrait of the current Martinů look also at the names of the artists and I can imagine that family. Notice that the word “international” is not meant The Bohuslav Martinů a trip to Prague could be a major event for you. I shall surely only for the members of the board! I think we can be proud Institute go myself, and we shall use the opportunity to hold our an- that we have such a large number of members after only one Náměstí Kinských 3 nual general meeting of the Society during this festival - on year of existence. Of course, if we could do more than write CZ - 150 00 Prague 5 the Newsletter and present compact discs to each member December 10 at the Bohuslav Martinů Institute. All members are in- we could be even more numerous. Financially, we remain Did you know that the Martinů Quartet has already been vited to a discussion very grateful to the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation for sup- in existence for thirtynine years? See the article about about the future porting us. I hope that every one will be stimulated to find this ensemble by Emil Leichner, the quartet’s pianist and of the society. an eminent Martinů connoisseur. See also the comments new friends for the Society. of Mr. Schneider about his investigations in the south of Karel Van Eycken INTERNATIONAL BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ SOCIETY The Actual List of Members Sorted by Countries BOARD OF DIRECTORS Van Eycken Karel - President Halbreich Harry Mabary Judith Březina Aleš Tokuda Mari Terian Gregory Lippold Gerd Coussement Walter

AUSTRALIA Peres Jean-Pierre Tempo Publishing Prague JAPAN Beith Richard Howland Vernon Prometheus-ensemble Palák Milan Sawa Yukiko Billinge Dave and Carole Puttemans Pierre Svatoš Tomáš Tanaka Hideyuki Boswell Phillip C. AUSTRIA Regout Eric Veber Petr Yanagihara Hideto Brocklehurst Steven Češka Emil Ronvaux Nathalie Vičar Jan Burton Anthony Geroldinger Franz Sannen An Víšek Tomáš LUXEMBOURG Crump Mike Schneider M. J. Piper Geoff Davies Colin BELGIUM Swinnen Camille DENMARK Frazer Tony Adagio - Brussels Symoens Gilbert Albrechtsen Preben NETHERLANDS Grenfell-Baines Milena Arty Pierre, Mr. & Ms. Thiron Annie Jonker J. P. B. Herbert Peter Baily, Mr. & Mrs. Valach Jan FRANCE Kuipers, P. J. Hogwood Christopher Beurms Daniël Verdin Thierry Barbier Pierre-Emile Oosterhof Fedde Lambert Patrick De Boitselier Guido Vlaeminck Jos Canino Patricia Vaneker Hans Large Brian J. Bontridder, Mr. & Mrs. Wasseige M. Franois-Xavier Centre Tchèque de Paris Welvaadt Raads Linney-Drouet C. A. De Bourlé Jean-Pierre Wauters Guido Chevy Patrice Mackerras Sir Charles Buelens Willy Wauters Joëlle Levi Laurence NORWAY Marsden Bill & Vera Chatel, Mr. & Mrs. Weger Jan & Coussement Alexis Kornstad Tor Melville-Mason Graham Chauveau Monique Wyffels Magda Erismann Guy Pavier Edna Coussement Anne-Marie Festival d’Ile de France POLAND Penna Adrian Créteur Agnes BRAZIL Freling Jean-Claude Stompel Józef Prof. Perry Ted Dechamps Claude Coelho Lauro Machado Leduc Jean Pullman Shawn Demeure Jean-Pierre Stoianova Ivanka SWEDEN Reeve Malcolm Desmedt Marie Bernadette BULGARIA Thiele Günter Rickards Guy Desprechin Brigitte Georgiewa Stefanka GERMANY Rosenfelder Alan Donnet Hadelin, Mr. & Mrs. Bornscheuer Stefan SWITZERLAND Schuringa Christoph Doucet Danielle CANADA Bostock Douglas Kellerhals Max - honorary member Seager Robin Draelants Raymond Fontana Irene Philippi Daniela Rybář Petr Slater Graham Duponcheel Christian Fontana Luca Woesler Ulrich Schweizerische Martinu Gesellschaft Smaczny Jan Eeckeloo Johan Wolf Eugen S. Kupper Roland Todd Mark Eggert Kurt CZECH REPUBLIC Uchtenhagen Ulrich Vernon D. Fenelly Liam Gabrielová Jarmila HONG – KONG Young Roger Focroulle Bernard Klener Pavel van Es Kees UNITED KINGDOM Van Gassen, Mr. Ledeč Jan Arculus Julian USA Geldhof Pol Maýrová Kateřina ITALY Arnold John Chalfant Randolph W. Verbruggen L. Morsa Michèle & Johnston Chris Sieber Jürgen Babb John Entwistle Erik Goddere, Mr. & Mrs. Fiehler Judith Marie Haza Pavel Dear members, Goren Neal Van Hoof Rudy We would like to ask you to pay your member- If there are any changes in your addresses or Grundy David M. Jakou Raoul ship dues for next year (2002) until the end you have new e-mail addresses, please, let us Harvat Marie J. Kaufmann Martin of December 2001! Some of you have not paid know - the new e-mail address of the office is Herring Laffayette Klastersky Jean, Mr. & Mrs. the dues for this year yet, so please, pay them [email protected] Kadlec Edward O. Van Liesbeth Arie together with the dues for next year. Otherwise, Also, if you find any mistakes in the spelling of King Robert and Mary Lindsay Benjamin you are not going to receive the promised your names or addresses - please, tell us! Rybka F. James Smetana František Masset Yves ‘99 BM Festival CD and you will not be considered Thank you very much in advance. Weltzien Robert T., Jr. Nelissen Julien members of the IBMS for the year 2002. Jindra Jilečková, secretary of the IBMS

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 3 Emil Leichner

40 YEARS WITH THE NAME MARTINŮ The Bohuslav Martinů Piano Quartet will Celebrate a Major Anniversary Next Season The history of the Bohuslav Martinů Piano Quartet reaches far back into In 1963 I was just completing my studies at the Academy of Performing the past and is closely connected with the name of violinist Emil Leichner, Sr. Arts in Prague. I called in another two young colleagues from the school If I want to explain the roots of our Quartet’s origin I must say a few words (J. Čurda, A. Duda). The elder of the Leichners took the position of leader as about another chamber ensemble - the Czech Nonet. violinist and manager, and a permanent Piano Quartet had been born. The In 1924 my father and colleagues of his founded the Czech Nonet. At that music of Martinů became the core repertoire for our newly-founded ensemble. time there was practically no literature for this Based on written permission from the composer’s instrumental combination: its programming had to widow Mrs. Charlotte Martinů (see next page), we rely mainly on the Nonet of Louis Spohr, Beethoven’s named ourselves the Martinů Piano Quartet. Septet, and Schubert’s Octet. However, the Czech My father exerted a strong influence on us Nonet took advantage of the blossoming of culture young members, in the first place in regard to inter- during the interwar period and called upon many pretation and the specifics of chamber playing. important composers to write new works, yielding He also led us to perform Czech music, because he splendid results. My father headed the ensemble as said that a Czech musician without Czech music is first violinist and spiritual leader for forty years, unthinkable and that for this repertoire he or she during which he established contacts with many will always be an authentic performer in demand. classics of twentieth-century music including However, his input consisted not only in creating Prokofjev, Hindemith, Lutoslawski, Foerster, Hába, a relation to the classical heritage and to earlier and of course also Bohuslav Martinů. More than two Czech music, but also in our orientation toward hundred original works were composed on commis- contemporary music. Along with systematic atten- sion for the Czech Nonet and dedicated to it, and tion to the music of our patron Bohuslav Martinů, thus the ensemble wrote an important chapter in this has been one of the determining themes the history of modern music. throughout the four decades of the ensemble’s In the mid-1960s my father parted with the existence. Following the model of the Nonet, we Czech Nonet. But he was a man filled with energy approached many contemporary Czech as well as and soon began to miss artistic and managerial foreign composers who wrote original works for us. work. At that time a copy of the manuscript to Let us mention only as a representative sampling Martinů’s Piano Quartet came into my hands. It Jan Kapr, Karel Reiner, Václav Kučera, Jan Tausinger, was given to me - along with many other composi- Emil Leichner, Sr. and Matsushita from Japan. tions - by the composer’s friend Karel Šebánek, who This helped us greatly in finding concert op- knew of my warm relation- portunities. At that time there were many festivals devoted to ship to Martinů’s music contemporary music, for example in Stuttgart, Vienna, Berlin, and and was later, along with Cologne, and we were not absent in them. We also collaborated Dr. Miloš Šafránek and Dr. with many European radio stations. Systematic performance of Karel Mikysa, among our contemporary music rounded out the ensemble’s image. Thanks to greatest advocates and pro- my father’s contacts, very soon we appeared in numerous concert moters. In playing through halls abroad - in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Scandinavia. the score we found this to But we also had serious problems. These were not simple times: the be a work of absolutely lack of po-litical freedom had extraordinary qualities, a strong affect on cultural and this led us to the idea life. And the name Martinů, of creating an ensemble which we bore in our title, dedicated to performing 1960s was on the list of emigrants piano quartets. The histori- from Czechoslovakia. But it’s cal literature for this instrumental combination is amazingly rich, better not to remember containing masterpieces of the classical style (Mozart, Beethoven, that. and early Czech masters), romanticism (Mendelssohn, Schumann, When my father died in Weber, Dvořák, and Brahms), and more recent times (Suk, Fauré, 1973 it was a hard blow for and especially Martinů). Thus it was actually a chance encounter us. Actually the ensemble with the score of Martinů’s Piano Quartet that stimulated the origin dissolved. At first I couldn’t of our ensemble. Around 1980 imagine continuing in his

4 Profile work without him. But two years later came a request from the Supraphon and Eterna labels to record all four of Beethoven’s piano quartets. So I approached Martinů’s works Recorded by Josef Vlach, Josef Koďousek, and Viktor Moučka - members of the Vlach Quartet the Bohuslav Martinů Piano Quartet - and we made the recording. It was received exceptionally well and it occurred to us to revive our ensemble. But unfortu-nately before we could realize this Cinq pièces breves plan health problems on the part of two of the prospective members made it (Piano Trio No. 1 for Violin, Cello and Piano), H. 193; impossible. Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor, H. 327; Despite all the problems, in 1978 we managed to bring the ensemble back Piano Quartet, H. 287 to life. With violinist Antonín Novák, violist Karel Špelina, and cellist Viktor Supraphon 1111 3369 G Moučka we soon continued in the tradition of the first decade both in the sense of intensive promotion of music by Martinů and in stimulating the composition of new works which we then performed. Additional works were written for us by Piano Quartet, H. 287 Zdeněk Lukáš, Jan Hanuš, and Dalibor Vačkář. We also continued in undertaking Viktor Kalabis: Ludus for Piano Quartet concert tours. And here I must mention our regular participation for example Karel Husa: Variations for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano in concert life in Geneva, where we performed besides the Piano Quartet and Arco Diva UP 0027-2 131 both Piano Quintets of Martinů also new programming discoveries like the Piano Quintets of Webern and Bartók, Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony, Op. 9 as arranged by Webern, Ginastera’s Quintet, and other works - all this in the Stuart Wilson is 42, Scottish, and works as prestigious chamber series of the Geneva Conservatory where we performed a teacher and translator in Central Italy. regularly alongside such ensembles as the Juilliard Quartet, the Tatray Quartet, His poem, A blue domain, dealing with the the Tokyo Quartet, and the Beaux Arts Trio. earthquake which hit Marche and Umbria in The initiator of this excellent series was Prof. M. Vaněk, who was an amaz- September 1997, won second prize in the ing man - first an organizer of musical events in Prague during the time of the 1999 Keats/Shelley poetry competition – the First Republic and the Protecto-rate, then secretary to President Edvard Beneš, first line in fact comes from a sonnet by Keats. The poem also pays homage to the music of a diplomat, after the war long imprisoned by the communist regime, and Martinů, which, during the year of aftershocks finally after emigrating an employee of the United Nations in Geneva and that followed the big quake, helped to relieve professor at the university some of the stress of the situation. Dedication there. This highly respected „To Young Leichner from Martinů“ and extraordinary man was a friend of our ensemble and played an important role in its history. A blue domain Time passed very quickly, and with a concert in the Blue! tis the life of heaven, the domain Prague Spring Festival our that cradles us in scattered light, the blue sustain fellow players of many years of my wife’s eyes Antonín Novák and Viktor (she’s dashing round the terrace, Moučka bade farewell to us. flurrying water at brittle plants), Violinist Bohumil Kotmel - our cat’s eyes, blue, intense, concertmaster of the Czech her own glad-not-to-be-abandoned tune Philharmonic - and cellist a low strum below the almost treadable yen Miroslav Petráš became new of a Martinů cello adagio. Returned home, recovering calm from two months’ earthquake (a local priest, glum: Punishment for greed, it lays us bare from waste we do not need! Churches scaffolded shut, members and wonderful Nostradamus and Valerian sold out), successors to their pre- I’m trying to breathe in time, slow, decessors. In recent years counting the salmon-pink belfry’s nested pigeons – besides giving concerts the a tower (presumably smaller) than this Martinů Piano Quartet has expanded its discography to music’s infancy: winding the clock, ringing the angelus, include recordings of works receiving a toy drum, a violin, by Dvořák, Suk, Fauré, Lukáš, from father, cobbler and tower-warden, Kalabis, Husa, and others. keening his country’s folk songs as he made and mended. Not least, we must mention Ticking clock. Tower bells. Distant organ’s chordal mass; our devotion to the music of then expelled with the cumulus sound-space of childhood our patron, with recordings into promiscuous exile – brass of chamber and solo works jazzily jaunting along the Eastern plaint, by Martinů (for example my the blue air (translucent, iridescent) almost-complete eight-hour Permission from Charlotte Martinů with using Martinů’s name recording of his piano works). that he grew within’s shaped, soaring need The ideals with which the Martinů Quartet was founded many years ago are (light through powdered crystal) still valid today and form the pillars of its existence. We are happy if we can bring BOOM! tower slams pigeons shimmies (God!) people joy in the form of beautiful music. In this sense we are looking forward the world’s walls thrum we are weightless still very much to our fortieth anniversary. we do not fall This article resulted from a conversation of Emil Leichner with Karel Špelina and Aleš Březina. exhale The anniversary is announced ahead of time at the request of Prof. Emil Leichner.

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 5 Events

Berne Symphony Orchestra Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Switzerland) (Australia) Martinů EVENTS (www.bernorchester.ch) (www.sso.com.au) 2001-2002 7 October , 3 00 p.m. We give only a selection from Martinů’s works. St. Jamess Church - Sydney Music for Spring: Ravel, Martinů, 21 March 2002, 7 30 p.m. CONCERTS 30 October, 2 November 2001 Poulenc Soňa Krivčíková - piano, Luděk Cap - violin Kurt Andreas Friner - flute Francesco Celata - conductor Stanislav Macura - conductor Concerto for Flute, The Kitchen Revue, H. 161 The Prague Symphonic Concerto for Violin, Violin and Orchestra, H. 252 Orchestra FOK (CZ) Piano and Orchestra, H. 342 ANOTHER ORCHESTRAL 16 October, 7 30 p.m. The Prague Philharmonia (CZ) New York Philharmonic Smetana Hall, Municipal House - Prague (www.pkf.cz) Members (USA) CONCERT Pavel Peřina - viola, T. Hanus - conductor 30 10 February 2002, 7 p.m. (www.newyorkphilharmonic.org) 11 October, 7 30 p.m. Rhapsody - Concerto for Viola Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum - Prague and Orchestra, H. 337 Bohuslav Martinů Philharmony Zlín (CZ) Alexander Besa - viola NEW YORK Soňa Krivčíková - piano 23, 24 October, 7 30 p.m. Petr Valášek - clarinet PHILHARMONIC Luděk Cap - violin Smetana Hall, Municipal House - Prague Jiří Bělohlávek - conductor KURT MASUR, MUSIC DIRECTOR Tomáš Koutník - conductor Hana Kotková - violin Rhapsody - Concerto for Viola Concerto for Violin, and Orchestra, H. 337 Serge Baudo - conductor 18 November, 4 00 p.m. Piano and Orchestra, H. 342 Concerto for Violin Berg Chamber Orchestra (CZ) Merkin Concert Hall, New York and Orchestra No. 2, H. 293 Quartet for Oboe, Violin, OTHER CHAMBER Czech Radio Symphonic Cello and Piano, H. 315 Orchestra (CZ) 2 December, 3 00 p.m. CONCERTS Merkin Concert Hall, New York 00 30 14 October, 7 p.m. 9 October, 7 p.m. Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, H. 300 Majakovskij Hall - Prague SPH Auditorium (Singapore) Petr Holman - viola Pan East Trio Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, H. 300 Petr Vronský - conductor 15 October, 7 30 p.m. Orquesta Filarmónica Rhapsody - Concerto for Viola Martinů Hall, de la Universidad Nacional 24 October, 8 00 p.m. and Orchestra, H. 337 Lichtenštejn Palace - Prague Autónoma de México Buendner Kunstmuseum, Chur (Swit- 27 November, 7 30 p.m. Sonata da Camera for Cello and (Mexico Autonomous University Phil- zerland) Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum - Prague Chamber Orchestra, H. 283 harmonic Orchestra) Piano Recital - Robert Kolinsky Sonata No. 1, H. 350 Jan Simon - piano 31 October, 7 30 p.m. 6, 7 October 00 Tadeusz Strugala - conductor Martinů Hall, Lichtenštejn Palace - Pedro Ribeiro - oboe 27 October, 8 p.m. Concerto for Piano Prague Carlos Miguel Prieto - conductor Gasteig Kammermusiksaal, Munich. (D) and Orchestra No. 2, H. 237 Serenade No. 4 for Violin, Viola and Concerto for Oboe Duo Zappa-Mainolfi Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1, H. 277 Janáček’s Philharmonic Ostrava Chamber Orchestra, H. 215 and Small Orchestra, H. 353 00 (www.jfo.cz) 15 December, 7 30 p.m. 20, 21 October 31 October, 5 p.m. Martinů Hall, Lichtenštejn Palace - Kenneth Montgomery - conductor Bertramka - Prague (CZ) Prague La Bagarre, H. 155 Škampa Quartet Concerto da camera for Violin String Quartet No. 5, H. 268 24, 25 November and Chamber Orchestra with Piano 5 November, 7 30 p.m. and Timpani, H. 285 Joann Falletta - conductor Memorial to Lidice, H. 296 Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum - Prague (CZ) Martinů Quartet 10, 11 January 2002, 7 30 p.m. Chamber Philharmonic Pardu- 26, 27 January String Quartet No. 3, H. 183 Banqueting Hall, Vítkovice - Ostrava bice (CZ) Horacio Gutiérrez - piano 30 N. A. King - oboe, K. I. Eto - conductor (www.chamberphilpar.cz) Ronald Zollman - conductor 27 November, 7 p.m. Concerto for Oboe, H. 353 Double Concerto for Two String Lichtenstein Palace Gallery - Prague (CZ) Letter to Frances II 7 February 2002, 7 30 p.m. Orchestras, Piano and Timpani, H. 271 From the correspondence between Banqueting Hall, Vítkovice - Ostrava 16, 17 February 2002 Bohuslav Martinů and Frances Ježková Festival Concert at the Jubilee Marc Tardue - conductor Two Songs to the texts of Prof. Otakar Trhlík Symphony No. 5, H. 310 of Negro folk-poetry, H. 228 Jan Hališka - cello, O. Trhlík - conductor 22 October, 7 00 p.m. 30 Songs on One Page, H. 294 Symphony No. 4, H. 305 24 October, 7 p.m. Norddeutsche Sinfonietta (D) Suk Hall, The Music House - Pardubice 29 January 2002, 7 30 p.m. 21, 22 February 2002, 7 30 p.m. Jiří Stárek - conductor Quiet City: Suk Hall, Rudolfinum - Prague (CZ) Banqueting Hall, Vítkovice - Ostrava Sinfonietta La Jolla, H. 328 Czech and American Composers Trio Concertante Eugen Indjič - piano in New York Piano Trio No. 2 in D Minor, H. 327 Chr. Arming - conductor 23 October, 7 30 p.m. Sextet for String Orchestra, H. 224 Fantaisies symphoniques The Great Hall 5 February 2002, 7 30 p.m. (Symphony No. 6), H. 343 Adalbertinum - Hradec Králové 3 October, 5 00 p.m. Suk Hall, Rudolfinum - Prague (CZ) Jiří Stárek - conductor Rendsburg, Christkirche Martinů Collegium North-Bohemian Philharmonic Sinfonietta La Jolla, H. 328 00 Bergerettes, H. 275 Teplice (CZ) 6 October, 8 p.m. 22 April 2002, 7 00 p.m. Plöner Musikherbst 19 February 2002, 7 30 p.m. (www.severoceskafilharmonie.cz) 23, 24 April 2002, 7 30 p.m. State Philharmonic Brno (CZ) 7 October, 11 00 a.m. 22 November, 7 30 p.m. Suk Hall, The House of Music - Pardubice Twelfth Anniversary of Philharmonic Familien-Konzertmatinée, Kiel Alexander Besa - violin Michal Kaňka - cello Ensembles Rudolf-Steiner-Schule Paulo Gatto - conductor Douglas Bostock - conductor Philharmonic Wind Trio, Fagoti Brunenses Theatre behind the Gate - Suite Sonata da Camera for Cello and 7 October, 5 00 p.m. Sextet for Piano from the Opera, H. 251 A Chamber Orchestra, H. 283 Elmshorn, St. Nikolai and Wind Instruments, H.174

6 Events FESTIVALS

Autumn Festival in Trutnov (CZ) 30 AMEROPA 2001 27 September, 7 p.m. 21 September – 4 October Concert Hall B. Martinů 21 September, 7 30 p.m. Igor Ardašev - piano recital Concert Hall B. Martinů Three Czech Dances, H. 154 Smetana Trio 29 September, 7 30 p.m. Variations on a Theme of Rossini Concert Hall B. Martinů for Cello and Piano, H. 290 Jupiter quartet 23 September, 7 30 p.m. String Quartet No. 7, H. 314 Concert Hall B. Martinů 4 October, 7 30 p.m. Instrumental Ansamble Variace, Olga National House Čechová - mezzosoprano, guests: South Bohemia Chamber Philharmony Jana Štěpánková - recitation, Roman České Budějovice Janál - baritone, Jitka Čechová - piano Jacques-Francis Manzone - conductor String Trio No. 2 for Violin, Viola and Sinfonietta La Jolla, H. 328 Cello, H. 238, Two Ballads to Folk- The AMEROPA 2001 international music courses and chamber music festival song Texts for Contraalto and Piano, Beethoven Festival (www.ameropa.org) were held in Prague this year for the eighth time, from 29 H. 228, Three melodramas, H. 82, H. 00 1 October, 8 p.m. July to 11 August, in the premises of the Jan Neruda Musical Secondary School 83, H. 84, Vokalise - Etude for Middle Church of St. Margareta, Bruehl (D) and the Prague City Music School in the Žižkov district of Prague. They were in- Voice and Piano, H. 188, Three Songs Prague Chamber Choir augurated in 1993 by Vadim Mazo, an American conductor, violinist, and violist for the Cabaret “Červená sedma”, Pavel Kühn - Conductor of Russian origin. In the first years the participants in the courses were almost H. 129, Sextet for Two Violins, Two Four Marian Songs exclusively American teachers who brought their pupils to Prague to study and Violas and Two Cellos, H. 224 for Mixed Chorus, H. 235 play chamber music together during a week-long stay including joint concerts 24 September, 9 00 and 11 00 a.m. with Czech artists. Concert Hall B. Martinů The 2001 International Bohu- Almost ninety students ranging from twelve to seventy-eight years old from Concert for high school students slav Martinů Music Festival in fourteen countries rehearsed more than sixty chamber works of the most varied Jan Holena - cello, Jiří Holena - piano instrumentation and size from duo to octet. Each year works by Czech compos- Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano, H. Basle (Switzerland) ers, above all Antonín Dvořák and Bohuslav Martinů, figure prominently in the 286 18 November – 2 December literature played. One whole afternoon was devoted to Martinů - beginning with Detailed program see page 19 a lecture by Prof. Ivan Štraus, followed by a concert of works by Martinů for two 25 September, 7 30 p.m. pianos played by Marc Clinton and Nicole Narboni (and recorded by them on a Concert Hall B. Martinů The Bohuslav Martinů Festival compact disc), then an evening projection of the film Martinů and America. Public Milan Buerger - bass concerts by students included the following pieces by Martinů: the Fantasy for Václav Loskot - piano 2001 in Prague (CZ) Two Pianos, the Serenade No. 3 for Oboe, Clarinet, Four Violins, and Cello, and Two Polkas from 7 – 13 December 2001 the Sonata for Violin, Flute, and Piano. Etudes and Polkas, H. 308 Detailed program see page 20 Áda Slivanská OPERAS BOSTON’S MARTINŮGregory Terian ON TOUR Plays about Mary Boston Symphony Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor Bernard Haitink led the BSO and Tanglewood The National Theatre - Prague www.narodni-divadlo.cz Festival Chorus in a 10-concert tour of European music festivals from August 25 to September 6, including Municipal Theatre Orchestra performances in London, Edinburgh, Lübeck, Hannover, Lucerne, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Ústí n. Labem www.operabalet.cz London, Royal Albert Hall, 25 August 2001 (including Czech). This was the orchestra with which Martinů Norbert Baxa - conductor The Boston Symphony Orchestra has come and gone leaving was most closely associated after his arrival in America and he became friendly with many of its members with whom he could A new production of the Martinů’s 6th Symphony resounding in its wake. It must be unprec- converse in French. opera Plays about Mary, edented for a world class orchestra to take a major Martinů work Haitink deserves great credit for including the Symphony in the H. 236 opened at the on an extended tour and to perform it at each of its prestigious tour programme and promoting the Martinů cause in Europe. Municipal Theater in Ústí venues, but it seems to have paid off with a near capacity audience It is just a pity that the orchestra’s historic RCA recording nad Labem at 7 00 p.m. at the Promenade concert in London and the Edinburgh concert under Munch was not re-issued for the on 2 March 2001. It was sold out weeks in advance. occasion. mounted in collaboration The reception of the performances was In connection with the 100th anniversary with Prague’s Academy of Performing gratifying although Haitink’s more melow of Symphony Hall Boston, the orchestra Arts. This production came to the symphonic vision of the work contrasted will be issuing a 12 CD set of performances National Theater in Prague, where markedly with Charles Munch’s more drawn from its archives and covering we could see it on October 8. dramatic fantasy of forty years ago. But if any Martinů work is open to differing the years 1943 - 2000. Martinů will be interpretations it is surely the Sixth represented by the Double Concerto for The Voice of the Forest Symphony. two String Orchestra, Piano and Timpani as Barka Theatre – Brno (CZ) It must be said that the Boston sound is performed by Rafael Kubelík on 13 Janu- 11 October, 7 00 p.m. - premiere not as it was half a century ago. In a pre- ary 1968 which will no doubt prove to be Other performances concert talk in London the orchestra’s another of his powerful and impressive 14, 16, 17 October timpanist Everett Firth, whose tenure readings. The album does not draw on Brno Conservatory stretches back to the Koussevitzky era, mentioned that in those works specifically associated with Boston performances of Jakub Klecker – conductor days half the orchestras members came from France giving it a which are preserved in the orchestras archives. These include Alena Vaňáková – director very distinctive orchestral timbre. the Parables and Sixth Symphony under Munch and the First Stage design and costumes Apart from the French and American elements the orchestra Symphony as performed under Václav Neumann in 1982. Perhaps Kateřina Kerndlová included almost every conceivable European nationality these will be made available at some future date. The Soldier and the Dancer State Opera Prague (CZ) Events prepared (www.opera.cz) Another Event 25 November 2001 - Martinů Society Japan - video presentation of by Jindra Jilečková 00 5, 10 January 2002, 7 p.m. the film Martinů and America and Dr. Hideo Sekine‘s lecture in Tokio. and Jana Honzíková

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 7 Events MEMBERS’ DIARY Concert against Racism On September 19 a Concert against Concert Cycle The 2001 Flanders Festival Racism was held at the Kölner Philhar- The gala opening concert in Brus- monie. The Junge Sinfonie Köln played 2002 sels on 5 September 2001 was a special works of Grieg, Martinů and Dvořák. Many one for all Martinů lovers. We had the young persons attended. The proceeds opportunity to hear the Boston Sympho- will be used to send about a hundred ny Orchestra under Bernhard Haitink young people (mainly pupils) to Lidice perform Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic during the autumn holiday in October. poem From Bohemia’s Fields and Forests, They will help the local gardeners renew the Sixth Symphony of Bohuslav Martinů the rose garden and plant thousands (Fantaisies symphoniques), and the Sec- of roses, and also learn about the ter- ond Symphony by Johannes Brahms. rible and inconceivable deeds of the As we have mentioned in the Martinů with Ch. Munch, Haitink started quickly, imposing German army during the war. Meetings last Newsletter (p. 8), the Czech Paris 1956 Smetana’s heavy chords in the brass sec- with the inhabitants of Lidice will surely Center in Paris in collaboration tion. The typical sound of the orchestra make a strong impression on the young was an unusual atmosphere in the hall: with the Bohuslav Martinů In- came to us in all its variety due to this people. people who knew the music of Martinů sti-tute in Prague are preparing work’s colorful orchestration. The horn For me of course the highlight of the enjoyed the way it was played and they cycle of Martinů concerts. Below theme was played outstandingly and was concert was Martinů’s Memorial to Lidice. were moved - just as must be the case you can see the program of four a highlight of the performance. When it ended everyone remained silent with music. People who were not yet concerts, which will be held bet- Martinů’s Sixth Symphony is some- for a very long time. The horns played familiar with Martinů’s music opened thing apart in various aspects: for the theme from Beethoven’s Fifth Sym- ween January and April 2002: their ears and were moved just like Martinů, it was “a very personal thing” phony as impressively as the trombones in everyone else present. For them it was Concert No. 1 as he explained in the program notes for The Last Judgment - with great urgency. a real discovery. January (date not specified) the world premiere. For the orchestra it Ulrich Woesler The concert concluded with Brahms. was - and still is - a successful symphony Calliopée nota bene ensemble The orchestra played this work, which which was dedicated to them and their is certainly part of the standard reper- Bohuslav Martinů conductor Charles Munch. For the audi- toire, well. Personally I missed a “bit of Les Rondes for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, ence it is a whole world, the world of surprise” in the interpretation, but the Trumpet, Two violins and Piano, H. 200 Martinů, opening up for them. quality of both orchestra and conductor Sonate for Cello and Piano No. 3, H. 340 Haitink proved to be well-acquainted is of such a caliber that we can speak of La revue de cuisine, H. 161 with the architecture of the symphony a very good performance. All together, Béla Bartók and he took the orchestra with him it was an exciting and magnificent Kontrasts for Clarinet, Violin and Piano to bring off a brilliant performance. evening and an extraordinary start for Everybody in the Henri Leboeuf Hall Concert No. 2 the festival. was fascinated by the music: all were February (date not specified) Karel Van Eycken Martinůs, Darien USA 1943 sitting on the edges of their seats. There Calliopée nota bene ensemble Bohuslav Martinů GRAMOPHONE AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT Les Rittournelles for Piano, H. 227 BARBICAN, London 19 October 2001 Piano Quartet, H. 287 This year the GRAMOPHONE AWARDS, the most prestigious prizes for recordings Madrigals for Violin and Viola, H. 313 of clasiccal music worldwide - often called the Oscars of classical music - celebrated Leoš Janáček their twenty-fifth anniversary. This was an extraordinary event for the Czech Re- Pohádka for Cello and Piano public as well, because in the category of solo vocal recordings the winner was the Concert No. 3 Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená for her recording titled Love Songs. In March (date not specified) addition to vocal gems by Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček, her compact disc offers Calliopée nota bene ensemble pieces by Martinů (see the preceding issue) including the world premiere recording Bohuslav Martinů of Four Songs to Texts from Moravian Folk Poetry, which were not discovered until String Trio No. 2, H. 238 1996. This honor is all the more significant in that Ms. Kožená was the first Czech Magdalena Kožená Piano Trio No. 2, H. 327 in history to receive it; she was preceded by international stars of such renown Musique de chambre No. 1, H. 376 Love Songs as Bryn Terfel, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Hampson, and Ian Bostridge. Igor Stravinskij L‘Histoire du soldat - Suite A selection from the reviews With ravishingly beautiful singing that de- ...The true discoveries on this disc are for Clarinet, Violin and Piano fies competition in this repertory, Kožená the songs of Bohuslav Martinů - there (arranged by the composer) 1919 ...For us Czechs it is probably hard and Johnson are outstanding evangelists, are 22 of them here, most of minia- to grasp what a breakthrough the particularly for Martinů... The Czech mez- ture proportions - revealing him as a Concert No. 4 inclusion of songs by Martinů is for zos most valuable contribution to the master of the form… 2 April, 2002 Deutsche Grammophon. DG “yielded” recorded repertoire is her championship www.barnesandnoble.com Šárka Čurdová – flute to pressure from the singer and the of Bohuslav Martinůs neglected songs: David Mimra – violin Czech branch of Universal, and in its in two of his New Slovak Songs, in his Petra Matějová – piano catalogue for the year 2000 (!!!) we Mélodies pour une amie de mon pays – a ...Magdalena Kožená is a young finally find the name of Martinů. For first recording of settings from Karel Moravian mezzosoprano with movie- Bohuslav Martinů this firm headquartered in Hamburg, Erbens Czech Folk Songs and Rhymes – star looks…Her fist solo album for Promenades for Violin, Czech music is no longer only Dvořák, Kožená reveals the authentic Czech voice Deutsche Grammophon, called Love Flute and Piano, H. 274 Janáček, and Smetana. of this bewilderingly eclectic, stylistically Songs, features an imaginatively Sonata for Flute and Piano, H. 306 The performance by this mezzo- cosmopolitan composer. Martinůs New presented sequence of 42 items by Sonata for Violin soprano from Brno is simply perfect. Miniatures and Songs On One Page are Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů… For and Piano No. 3, H. 303 I can’t imagine a more heartfelt delectable short songs which deserve most people, the principal surprise of Madrigal Sonata for Flute, performance of Martinů’s “Lullaby” much wider recognition. Kožená and the album will be the Martinů songs, Violin and Piano, H. 291 and “Pious Song” from the Four which display an astonishing range her sympathetic accompanist, Graham Concert programs subject to change Songs, for example - or actually of Johnson, are wonderful evangelists for of musical and emotional expres- any of the Martinů songs. Mainly for Martinů the song-writer in this outstand- sion, from the sophisticated wit of For more details contact this reason her recording is one of ing, superbly recorded recital. A must for the „Songs on One Page“ to the rapt the Czech Center Paris: Harmonie’s “Tips”... all lovers of song. simplicity of the „Lullaby“. Tel: +33-1-57 53 00 27 Luboš Stehlík, Harmonie Hugh Canning, Gramophone Music Shelf (www.kusc.org) E-mail: [email protected] August 2000 August 2000 October 2000 s. b.

8 Film Martinů in a Different Light The Musical Film for Television as a Form of Interpreting Chamber Stage Works by Bohuslav Martinů Jiří Nekvasil

Photos: The Amazing Flight Václav Beneš

when producing operas for television: works of short and medium length OPERA AS TELEVISION FILM have the best chance - works that are less suitable for theatrical performance SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE GENRE for this very reason. An evening of one-act operas (even if they are remark- AND CHOICE OF WORKS FOR TREATMENT able works) is considered by everyone - from programmers through stagers and performers to audiences - to be something less valuable and thus less For more than ten years I have been working as a director for Czech desired. Thus many remarkable works find themselves on the periphery of (formerly Czechoslovak) Television in creating musical programs. I have had interest, condemned to less frequent performance and in the case of chamber the opportunity to direct many types of musical programs and forms - video scoring most likely to occasional studio or student productions. Here I see recordings and broadcasts of concerts and opera performances, chamber a great chance for those who choose operas for television films. Awareness concerts, musical journalism, documentary films, and musical films like the and definition of the visual potential of a work is the key to the success of stylized documentary on the composer Erwin Schulhoff titled My Teeth Are any production. (In assessing this potential one must of course take into Chattering in the Rhythm of a Shimmy. In addition I have directed several consideration the abilities and inclinations of those who will be involved in treatments of operas and one ballet that have been intended specifically for the production.) The dominant expressive means of contemporary operatic the medium of television or film. film are editing, detail, and the possibility of visual stylization of a completely • • • different sort than in theater. I also think that one cannot stage an opera Being primarily a theatrical artist, I can say that for me opera as film rep- or musical film mechanically or treat it purely in the language of film (the resents another important possibility for expression and creative treatment. language common in acted films) or in the form of a television production Over the last decade we can note a general retreat from traditional large-scale (which is now almost outmoded). On the contrary, operatic film requires a television productions and films of operas. Apart from the high cost of these certain unique stylization which is close to theatrical expression, despite projects, and unfortunately the smaller space devoted to classical music and the fact that it uses the above-mentioned specific attributes of film. Here, opera in television broadcasts worldwide, producers are attempting to newly at least for me, is felt the affinity to the form of the music video clip. (This define the possibilities in rendering musical-dramatic works for the televi- applies especially to its highly aestheticized and polished form achieved sion screen. With broadcasting technology having reached a high degree of in the 1980s. Today, when the video clip has became an almost obligatory perfection, capable of recording or broadcasting opera performances with byproduct of the music industry, there are substantially fewer of these truly high video and audio quality as an almost flawless conveyance of the experi- inspiring and sophisticated, highly visually stylized and thus also relatively ence, we are able to accept an extraordinarily long program on television: expensive miniature films. Their inspiration for film and theatrical artists many operas last three hours or more. However, this time span, considered especially in the 1990s is indisputable.) One must always be aware that music a matter of course for operatic theater or its direct conveyance, is a problem and the sung word are in essence something unnatural, highly stylized, and in a form specifically intended for television, especially in these days of rapid therefore require a stylized, special visual component and overall manner movement from one thing to another as evidenced in video clips. For me, of conception. then, a television production of an opera requires above all that one be aware • • • of time in a sense specific to television, on two levels - the actual duration Three years ago, in the summer of 1998, I had the opportunity to direct of the work and also its internal rhythm with a view toward its latent visual two chamber stage works of Bohuslav Martinů for Czech Television - the opera potential, which of course need not be the same as the outward “visual Tears of aKnife and the mechanical ballet The Amazing Flight - as the begin- diversity” of the libretto. ning of a free film series titled Bohuslav Martinů - Scenic Bibelots. In 2000 a I think the choice of works for projects is of fundamental importance film treatment of the radio opera The Voice of the Forest was added. Presently

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 9 I am working on scenarios for two more films - a treatment of the opera What vague boundary between the periphery and the demimonde, in their un- Men Live By and the puppet ballet On tourne (We’re Filming). The project derwear. Eleonora eats sweet pastries, and the Mother nibbles on a sausage plans to additional works including two operatic fragments and an evening- (a particular type of sausage called in Czech a “Drowned Man”). Then they see length opera film of The Three Wishes. The present essay represents a sort the Hanged Man. From some sort of stale bourgeois boredom full of sexually of non-comprehensive commentary on what has been finished to date, but unsatisfied restlessness develops a stream of strange escapades with the also an aesthetic balancing and contemplation before approaching additional suspended corpse and with Satan, who continuously changes his form. The works - and an indication of my theoretical ideas on the genre of musical bourgeois atmosphere and the interior crammed with heavy furniture are a film as I am trying to create it, this time mainly as a form of interpreting part of another interior. It stands on the floor of a decorated dance hall. In remarkable (and not very often performed) stage works by Tears of a Knife Bohuslav Martinů. BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ CREATOR OF OPERATIC EXPERIMENTS

The whole stage output of Bohuslav Martinů (1890- 1959) is a sort of discussion of the form and possibilities of contemporary musical theater. It is a discussion that is still very topical today, even though more than seventy years have transpired since the earliest works were composed. Martinů’s operatic output, numbering fourteen completed works, pres- ents in each of them a completely different opinion on the form of modern opera and its expressive possibilities. Each of them is an experiment, beginning with the choice and construction of the libretto - a journey from the music drama of neo-romanticism to theater that is epic, more demonstrative than Tears of a Knife experienced, sometimes transgres- sing the boundaries of the genre - by using elements of jazz and dance music, combinations of opera, ballet, the film we do not abandon the environment of this hall, but and pantomime, and chamber form, the space changes its expressive and spatial hierarchy with by returning to the roots and sources the interpretational development of the story. This principle of folk drama, and by utilizing new is more-or-less shared by all three of the films in the series media - in two radio operas and two completed so far. television operas. On the one hand we have large works like Juliette and THE AMAZING FLIGHT both fully-valid versions of The Greek Passion, which thanks to excellent productions in recent years has taken a This work was written in 1928 and is subtitled “A Mechanical Ballet”. place among the most treasured heritage of world opera literature of the It is Martinů’s most daring theatrical experiment - a theatrical performance twentieth century, and besides another three evening-length operas (of which without actors - or better said a ballet without dancers - in which the spectacle Plays about Mary is moreover an episodic work with more than one story) there (i.e. the visual component) is provided only by moving sets and props. The remain short and medium-length works. For me the composer’s systematic librettist of Tears of a Knife, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, stood behind the efforts have interpenetrated with my own ideas regarding suitable subjects idea of this project. He drew the composer’s attention to the new Parisian for systematic work in the area of musical film. And so the original idea and theater of Madame Beritzi, which was to present avant-garde operas, ballets, dream of filming Tears of a Knife grew into a free series of film treatments of and other musical works of an experimental nature. Before The Amazing chamber stage works by Martinů including besides operas some ballets. The Flight made it to the stage the theater went bankrupt, and the score was principle of all the films is (in conformity with my opinion on opera films in lost until it was discovered in the 1990s in the State Library in Berlin. The general) that those who sing the solo parts in the recording should also act film treatment is the first visualization of this work: the delayed premiere them before the film camera. was only in a concert version. Martinů took the subject for this remarkable work from an event in real TEARS OF A KNIFE life. On 8 May 1927 the French pilots Nungesser and Coli took off on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean. But they never reached the shores of America. Their The idea of a film treatment of Martinů’s second opera, Tears of a Knife, plane was never found. In preparing the scenario for The Amazing Flight we occurred to me more than thirteen years ago when I staged this work for faced a fundamental problem of how to communicate this idea of a ballet the “Disk” Theater in Prague. This surrealistic-dadaistic operatic trifle from without dancers in the form of a television film, because we were aware of 1928 is on a chamber scale not only by virtue of its length (twenty-seven a fundamental danger: whereas in the theater the viewer can assess the size of minutes) but also in its scoring - three soloists and an orchestra of only things that are seen, on the television screen or film screen with the absence fourteen players. The opera was composed to a text by the French writer of human beings there is no way of measuring: we can’t tell how big things Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, “the most dadaist of the dadaists”. It was are or whether we are seeing animation or some other technological trick, written in nine days for a festival in Baden-Baden held in the summer of that and the magic of the author’s intention is thus lost. Martinů left us several year. The outlandish, entirely fantastical plot involving a hanged man caused sketches of stage designs and stage instructions (a sort of outline scenario) the opera not to be presented in the festival, and it remained unperformed for this work, which we took as one of the inspirations and attempted to real- for forty-one years. Its stage premiere was not given until 1969 in Brno. ize in one of the plans for the structure of the film. Nevertheless the use of With its provocative multiple meanings, unrealizable stage directions, and live actors is part of the stylized system here. The characters are conceived bizarre text the work poses ever new questions to stagers - what does it all primarily in relation to things. A trick method of filming predominates: the mean, if it means anything? In its overall approach the film elaborates and characters tend to be a part of the mechanism, providing a scale for the non- completes the idea on which I based my theatrical production in 1988 (only living objects. The characters are deployed on three levels - two boys [see the third production of this work). The story of the Mother and her Eleonora photo p. 9] (portraying flying as a game and a child’s dream, working with begins and ends in bed during an afternoon - two lazy women, from the planes and props, mainly as toys), two adults (representing human beings

10 Film

aspect of the libretto, however, is only one of the layers of the work, which in its overall treatment has a distinctive poetic strength. The fairy tale grows into a metaphor. We sense here a strong surrealistic inspiration where the naivete of folk art represents subconscious longing and the horror story is a dream. “Because every human being has gotten lost in a for- est,” says the narrator in the introduction to the opera. We all will some day find ourselves in a nighttime labyrinth; may this wandering lead to a fairy-tale happy end. The musical expression is relatively unified and yet highly varied - from the naive fairy tale and echoes of folklore and folk tunes to a lyricism that is almost erotic. The film treatment of this opera set itself the goal of ex- pressing all these levels (i.e. not only illustrating the story but in a collage manner presenting a poetic image appropriate to the musical world of the opera and its positions). The form of treatment can be called surrealistic collage, which is inspired outwardly by visual art of the period. Also empha-sized is a specific trait of Czech surrealism: lyricism. The film’s visual The Amazing Flight treatment is thus based on surrealistic expressions of the Czech avant-garde in the visual arts in the 1930s, but not as controlling or controlled by mechanism), and finally two nude young women a historical reconstruction - rather as a strong inspirational [cover photo] (symbolizing the souls of the pilots in the last part of the film). source for the language of a contemporary musical film based on the period Here the human body is elevated above mechanism, but the manner of filming atmos-phere, spirit, and substance of the work. and especially the overall editing composition and use of various tricks makes The fact that Martinů was working for the then-new medium of “home the naked bodies of the girls into something like artifacts, in contrast to the theater without the visual component” led him especially to work with dra- cool metallic world of fragments of mechanisms or stylized props realizing matic time differently than in works intended for the theatrical stage. He the composer’s idea of mechanical theater. At the same time, even in this very stops the action with lyrical interludes, works again with collage form, and stylized and multi-layered form we tried to communicate the basic story of the juxtaposes against each other the naivete of a folk fairy tale, the color-print work. Paintings by René Magritte provided a strong visual inspiration. story, dream, and extreme lyricism. At the beginning of the opera the narrator challenges the audience to experience individually the mysterious fairy tale THE VOICE OF THE FOREST story in its ambiguity - a world between fairy tale, game, and dream, with fairy tale predominating - a strange lyrical collage hard to decipher at first. Martinů composed the opera The Voice of the Forest, subtitled “A Radio This transpires in rapidly-alternating shots like a direct association of what Opera”, between 12 March and 3 May 1935. This work of roughly half an hour is heard with the eyes touching in passing on the surroundings. This also recalls was intended for radio and was so-performed on 6 October 1935; however a little my fleeting impressions from childhood years in listening to fairy tales the composer did not exclude the possibility of staged performance. The being read - the world of fairytales heard with half-closed eyes. Usually it is libretto is by the poet Vítězslav Nezval. It is a hor- already dark outside and only a small table lamp ror story with a happy ending - a story of the love The Voice of the Forest shines, and strange shadows have inhabited the of a young rural woman, the Bride, who loses her room. Strange ideas different from the daytime way in the forest where she goes to bid farewell ones come to life in the fantasy of the child looking to her lover, the young Game Keeper. She falls at the half-dark objects. The objects in the room into the hands of robbers who are holding the take on a different dimension in combination with Game Keeper prisoner. He is unyielding and for the magical stories of the fairy tales heard. this reason the robbers condemn him to death. Hence the basic starting situation of the The lot falls to the Bride, disguised as a robber, young woman (the Bride) listening to a radio and she is to carry out the verdict. She leads him alone in a room at night. Here, too, an associative off into the forest, hears his story, and then frees series of images based on the same fundamental him. The poetic text has the form of a sort of folk interior situation arises. It is not the girl who fairy tale with echoes of folk art. This outward enters into the forest: the forest enters into her. POSTSCRIPT All three of these films were made in cooperation with Radim Smetana and Vítězslav Sýkora’s team at Czech Televi- sion in cooperation with Supraphon. They have been warmly received both in the Czech Republic and abroad and have been shown at many festivals. At the Golden Prague international television festival in 1999 Tears of a Knife and The Amazing Flight won the main prize, the “Czech Crystal”, as well as the prize of the Student Jury. Tears of aKnife also won the Grand Prix and the Prize for the Most Original Method of Directing at the Screening Stage Arts Prize festival in Brussels. Continuation of the whole series is entirely in the hands of Czech Television. Stage director Jiří Nekvasil works at the Prague State Opera as artistic manager, stage director, and programming director. In June 2002 he will become head of the opera of The Voice of the Forest the National Theater in Prague.

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 11 Martinů and his Homes in Nice Today Karel Van Eycken and Marcel J. Schneider

The terrace of “Le Beau Site” and “L’Isba” with the wood imitation made of concrete. Magnificent view of the harbor and the city. Bohuslav allowed himself to be photographed here.

Last year Mr. Schneider asked me if he could become In March 1956 the Martinůs said goodbye to America a member of our society. He gave me not only his name definitively. They traveled a lot in Europe and in the sum- and address but also a short curriculum vitae, from which mer of 1958 the Martinůs took a holiday at Royan and La I could see that he is a real connoisseur of Martinů’s music. Baule. Then he returned to Nice. On 1 September they where Now retired, Mr. Schneider lives in Nice - the world- back on the Mont Boron. A little excursion to Basel passed -famous resort in the south of France. It occurred to me to rather well but then the first signs of stomach complaints ask him (assuming he would have some time to devote to appeared. Bohuslav thought it was not important and the project) to seek out the places in Nice where Martinů they went back to Nice. But on 7 November 1958 he had lived and even conduct some investigations - determining to undergo a stomach operation and he stayed for a long what the buildings are today and perhaps speaking with period in Basel. Nevertheless the south of France beckoned witnesses. We had some correspondence about this matter and Bohuslav wanted to return to Mont Boron; they arrived and Mr. Schneider accepted. In what follows you will notice there on 1 April 1959. They were not able to enjoy their that we are dealing with a good detective, someone who is little paradise for long, however. Already on 26 May we persevering and moreover a skilled photographer! find them in Schönenberg again. It was the end of the great Before we let him speak it will be well to present the journey for Bohuslav: he died in the Liestal hospital on itinerary the Martinůs followed starting 22 June 1948 - the 28 August 1959. day they returned to the old continent for the first time Entrance to the house • • • since their escape from France in 1940. “Point Clair” halfway down the After this long introduction, we come to 2001 and Martinů intended to become a professor in Prague stairs leading into the valley. the report from Mr. Schneider. For him this story has not and had to discuss this matter in Europe, more precisely yet ended - he still has some investigations to do. Here is in Switzerland. A flight from New York brought the Martinůs to Paris, the city what he has to say: where they had lived for seventeen years and which had became Bohuslav’s It is almost a miracle that in a city where everywhere new buildings have second home. Then they traveled on to Vieux Moulin where Charlotte’s family been erected we find the places where Martinů lived and composed in the same lived. The south of France had a special attraction for the Martinůs; during the condition as he knew them. summer they were at Cassis and lived in Marseille with the Ebrard family in their No. 94 on Avenue de Brancolar is the only green island on this part of the house called “Rose du Ciel”, which stood near the Rue Sainte. After visiting Paul street. Below the street level in the middle of the property we find a big house and Maya Sacher in Switzerland the Martinůs returned, via Paris, to New York. with three levels. At the halfway point in a stairway of a hundred steps is the It was impossible to go back to Prague, and Bohuslav accepted a professorship entrance to the house “Point Clair”. From the road on, passing by a small fence, a at Princeton in the USA. path winds to the first level. Then come steps. Then he returned to Europe many times Bohuš and Charlotte’s bedroom. A staircase along the house gives access to the until September 1953, when they started to Photograph taken with a wide angle so that second floor where Bohuš was the guest of the live in Nice. They occupied an apartment with the room looks much bigger then it is. painter Josef Šíma. It was certainly not easy two rooms on the second floor of a building to bring a piano into the room. situated on the Chemin de Brancolard on the The villa was constructed in 1935. The Cimiez mountain. The building was called present inhabitant, who has been the owner for “Point Clair”. In September 1954 the Martinůs about twenty years, uses only the second floor. moved to a house called “L’Isba - Le Beau Site” He is the only occupant of the whole building. at No. 17 on the Boulevard du Mont Boron on It seems that the owners before 1980 were the Boron mountain. They took a rest. of Russian origin. The present owner knows The year 1955 was marked by some tourist nothing about Šíma or about Martinů. The visits to Italy and Austria and a visit to the garden is in a wild state, just as Bohuš found Sachers in Switzerland before the Martinůs it in his time. From the big salon on the flew to New York in October. second floor where the piano was there is a magnificent panorama of the city of Nice 12 Visit looking through the valley to the west. The biography Martinů, un musicien à l’éveil des Patrick le Nezet reason why the house is still there is that posing before sources. A few yards from this room we see the property is a part of a zoning district “L’Isba”. a charming little house made of concrete in intended for high-standing villas and the Mr. Schneider imitation of wood. It is on the property of “Le surface is not yet prepared for that purpose. took these Beau Site” but nevertheless independent. It is possible that the house will still last pictures, As we enter the door we find ourselves in a some time, but eventually the past will be including those small dining room that joins on the left with swept away and we will have only a descrip- of the interior, a salon where Bohuslav liked to rest in one with his tion and some photographs. permission. of his armchairs. These where made higher Mr. Schneider’s investigations regar- by a local craftsman using wooden spheres; ding the other house in Nice also bore fruit: Bohuslav had some difficulties rising from My first encounter with No. 17 and low chairs after his terrible accident in the No. 17bis on the Boulevard du Mont Boron U.S. Behind the salon we find a kitchen. A made me feel very uncomfortable. This long, small staircase leads to the upper floor which uninteresting, cheerless, almost dilapidated is at the street level. There is a small resting facade - so this was the villa “Le Beau Site” place and a little room connected directly to and “L’Isba”? the street at No. 17bis. While waiting for the bus to return home From the bedroom there is a vast 180° I questioned some passers-by who seemed panorama of the sea and Nice. In the back- to be from this quarter and a lady said she ground you can see Cap d’Antibes and if the thought the house was occupied. There was weather is bright and windy you can also see a door bell but it all looked very sinister to me. the ochre summits of the Massif de l’Estoril. Some days later a friend said to me There are spectacular sunsets. I have had “Let’s go see the villa!” We came via the the opportunity to visit Bohuslav’s home same bus and rang the bell. After some time in Polička a few times and I understand a man opened the door. I explained briefly very well the connection he made between our reason for disturbing him and showed the tower there and the eagle’s nest here in some papers with the name of Martinů on it Nice: inside everything very small, outside in big letters. He explained that he was very an unlimited view! busy and asked that we contact him later to In the salon I saw some music paper and arrange a proper meeting. some postcards sent to Miss Gisèle Tissier, the Right beside the villa “Le Beau Site” is a owner during Bohuš’s time. She was a friend belvedere from which one has a view of the sea, the harbor, of many artists. It was by visiting No. 17 that I found out and the city. There is a path that allows one to descend about this great lady Madame Tissier. I’d like to come back directly to the shore. Then you pass the Boulevard Carbone, and speak to Mr. Le Nezet to find out more about her and her also called “Basse Corniche”. From here I could take some work. She became the owner of the house in 1948 and carried photographs, and from the shore on Boulevard Franck out much restoration work. Later she met Mr. Le Nezet and Pilatte we can see the “sentinelle”. This is the bedroom of together with him they founded the Association des amis de “L’Isba” - the bedroom of the Martinůs. Mme Gisèle Tissier to promote the artistic and cultural legacy One afternoon I was received courteously by Mr. Patrick of “Le Beau Site”. After the death of Madame Tissier in 1988 Le Nezet who lives in “Le Beau Site”. He let me into the “Sa- the house was donated to the Institut de France as was her lon de Musique” (as I call the music room), removed the cloth wish. It houses a collection of harps and old instruments. cover from the piano and, going out and passing a terrace, In 1990 some concerts were given at “Le Beau Site” for the brought me to “L’Isba”, the little house adjacent to “Le Beau hundredth anniversary of Martinů’s birth. Site”. He still had things to do and gave me some papers We think that Mr. Schneider has not yet finished his I could look at and said: “I’ll give you time to immerse investigations. He feels challenged to find out more than we yourself in the place where Bohuš and Charlotte lived.” knew until now, and we are sure that he will do everything The music room in the “Le Beau Site” is rather large he can to promote Martinů and his music. We know that he and can seat seventy people. The piano is the only instru- Period photo of Martinů takes initiatives and gets positive results. Perhaps there will ment that remains, just as Guy Erismann described it in his in front of the house (1954-55) be another article in the near future. From Greg Terian’s Martinů Review in The Dvořák Society Newsletter Introduction Artur Rodzinski (combined with Darius Milhaud’s Suite and US President Richard Nixon before a state din- Jürgen Seiber who is the expert authority on Provençale performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra ner in Washington. the Martinů discography has unearthed some more under Eugene Ormandy). Probably the Martinů was I am convinced by this rare document in the Eng- fascinating rarities. The Lidice item brings to mind a direct recording of the New York premiere on lish version (very well sung and played) but I am not the immediate post-war period when the American 28. 10. 1943 – but certainly the first record production sure when it was recorded. For Martinů enthusiasts, Forces Network in Germany broadcast a daily or- of an orchestral work by Martinů. side A is a super-rare collectors’ item; side B contains chestral concert from the USA transcribed on disc. I discussed this years ago with an AFN archivist spirituals, folk and pop music. Some of the technology was quite advanced including in Frankfurt but he could find nothing about it in his Jürgen Sieber the use of unbreakable vinylite (V-discs) and also files. Many years later, after his retirement, he wrote 1 Postscript 33 /3 16-inch records. Many of the 1940s tapes which to me and enclosed the item reproduced above. In 1988 surface today are derived from these sources I found this production once more in a US record shop, Martinů’s profile must be on the up. Greg Terian but for a price of $ 2,400!!! A new musical series is being broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesdays, called ‘The Patrons’. The first Field Mass two programmes were devoted to Paul Sacher and One of the rarest Martinů Shellacs Serge Koussevitzky respectively, both of whom were Rodzinski plays Memorial to Lidice interpreted by the US Army Chorus and Band closely involved with our composer. Greg Terian For domestic and overseas radio use the US Two years ago, I found in a US record catalogue a Office for War Information in the Second World War promo recording on LP, featuring the United States Army Reprinted from the The Dvořák Society for Czech produced different record series. In series No. 5 Chorus and Band (S 19731), presenting an American and Slovak Music Newletter No. 55 (April 2001) we find ‘Contemporary European Music’ and under sung interpretation of Martinů’s Military Mass, con- Record No. 0WI 13-W-21 the first recording of ducted by Captain Allen C. Crowell. One of the sleeve Martinů’s Lidice with New York Philharmonic under photos shows him with Prime Minister Edward Heath

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 13 News MartinůNews INTERESTING NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ BOOKS INSTITUTE AND FOUNDATION

The long-awaited interactive catalog of the works of Bohuslav Martinů is planned for presentation at the end of November on the web pages of In August 2001 the Academia publishing house Bohuslav Martinů. This first version of the catalog is based on information released a book that has been in preparation for from published catalogs which is corrected or made more precise based on a long time: Zdeněk Zouhar’s Sborové dílo new findings, especially in the area of current location and existence of Bohuslava Martinů (The Choral Works of Bohuslav autographs. The catalog will include up-to-date information on publishers’ Martinů). It is in the Czech language and contains rights to Martinů’s works. It will be available at: short German and English summaries. http://www.martinu.cz/dilobm.htm • • • • • • The Carolinum Press of Charles University in Prague This year’s Martinů Festival in Prague will include (on December 8) the world is planning to publish Jaroslav Mihule’s major premiere of Martinů’s Czech Rhapsody for violin and piano as arranged for study Martinů - osud skladatele (Martinů - The violin and orchestra. Here are some comments by composer Jiří Teml, who Fate of a Composer) around the end of this year. orchestrated the work: A shorter study by the same author in English is also As regards my work on Bohuslav being prepared for publication in the near future Martinů’s Czech Rhapsody, orchest- by an English publisher. ration of music by the classics has • • • never been my hobby and I have A list of Koresponden- always come to it rather by accident. ce Bohuslava Martinů This was the case when, in plan- s Českou akademií věd ning the concert season in Plzeň, a umění (Martinů’s Correspondence with the it was discovered that there was Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts) by Kateřina no orchestration of Dvořák’s Gypsy Maýrová may be found in the Czech journal Hudební Melodies available. After rather long věda (Musicology), No. 1-2/2000, Volume XXXVII, hesitation I did it and this version is published by the Institute for Musicology of the still played. Similarly, I was asked Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The at the last moment to orchestrate article includes an English summary. Martinů’s Songs on One Page for • • • a concert in the Golden Prague French put Halbreich’s catalogue on the Internet television festival. That didn’t turn French language sites seem to be marching ahead in the Czech music field out badly either. Now I’m drowning in uncertainty before the premiere of these days. A recent entry to the field has placed part of Harry Halbreich’s the Czech Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra - a task incomparably more Martinů catalog on the Internet at complicated than was the case with the Songs. About the technical problems patachonf.free.fr/musique/txt/Kmartinu.doc I’ll say nothing for now; I’ll only mention that Professor Ivan Štraus had an Peter Herbert from The Dvořák Society Newsletter No. 55 unusually important share in the resulting form of this orchestration via his valuable advice and corrections of my first draft. A letter of Martinů to his friend Frank Rybka dated 24 June 1945 provides a certain legitimacy SCORES DISCOVERY for this orchestration: “For Kreisler [the American violinist Fritz Kreisler, originally from Vienna] I’ve written a Czech Rhapsody, for the time being In August a piano-vocal score of the In June the Swiss collector Roland with piano.” first version of The Greek Passion Kupper donated a color copy of • • • (from 1957) edited by Aleš Březina a previously-unknown letter of April A non-commercial compact disc recording from the Bohuslav Martinů was published by Universal Edition 1943 to the Martinů Institute, which Festival 2000 is planned for release by the end of this year. From the in Vienna. thus acquired one of the additional rich offering of recordings of four festival concerts (the closing orches- • • • letters from Martinů to his friend Marcel tral concert not being included for purposes of the CD), the following The British musicologist and con- Mihalovici, one of the members of the compositions by Martinů have been selected: Sonata for Cello and Piano ductor Sharon Choa has prepared a “École de Paris” group of composers. No. 2, H. 286 and Variations on a Slovak Folk Song for Cello and Piano, H. newly-revised edition of the Fourth The letter tells of the composer’s per- 378 in splendid renditions by Hungarian musicians Miklós Perényi (cello) Symphony. Negotiations regarding its sonal crisis shortly before compo-sition and Dénes Várjon (piano), and Concerto da camera for Violin, Piano and publication by Boosey and Hawkes are of the Third Symphony. Orchestra, H. 285 with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, violinist Régis Pas- now underway. quier, and pianist Avner Arad. • • • • • • Conductor Christopher Hogwood has Around the same time you can also prepared for publication the complete look forward to release of the long- music for the ballet A Kitchen Revue, planned non-commercial CD set with which is different from the already compositions by Martinů representing published suite. a cross section of his whole output, • • • titled Selected Masterpieces. Editio Bärenreiter in Prague is plan- The four CDs, published by the Bohus- ning to publish a revised edition of lav Martinů Foundation in Prague, Martinů’s Fourth String Quartet in present the best recorded perfor- December 2001. Preparations have mances of key works by Martinů. The also begun for publishing the fifth and set is structured in such a way as sixth quartets. Adam Klemens (fifth to appeal even to listeners who quartet) and Ivan Štraus (fourth and don’t know Martinů’s music well, and is accompanied by extensive, sixth quartets) collaborate with Aleš authoritative commentary from the pen of its editor O. F. Korte Březina in the editorial work for these and Aleš Březina. publications.

14 News

disc will include Fantasy and Toccata, Three Czech • • • CDs Dances, Dumka, Sonata, Fenetre sur le Jardin, and A conversation with Max Kellerhals In November in Prague conductor Johannes Moesus, Trois equisses. At 1 PM on 28 September a conversation with Max the Talich Chamber Orchestra, and the German trio • • • û Kellerhals, the chaplain who married Bohuslav and Parnassus will record Martinů’s Concertino for Piano The Emperor Quartet of England is planning to record Charlotte Martinů and was present at the composer’s Trio and String Orchestra, H. 232 from 1933 and his Martinů’s complete string quartets for the BIS label; burial, was broadcast on the Vltava radio station. The Concerto for Piano Trio and String Orchestra, H. this ensemble will also appear in this year’s Martinů conversation is ninety minutes long. A recording is 231 from the same year. These two works were long Festival in Prague, playing the fourth and fifth quar- available in the library of the Institute and was pub- regarded as one and the same piece. Martinů first tets. The first CD will be released in 2002. lished in an English version in the last issue of the composed the Concerto for Piano Trio and String Or- Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter. Also broadcast was the chestra on commission for the Trio Hongrois in March. ADDITIONAL ITEMS Quintet No. 2 for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano, He sent the score to the Schott publishing house, H. 298, as rendered by the Stamic Quartet with Igor which however had certain reservations about the The 2002 Bregenz Festspiele is scheduled to include Ardašev at the piano. piece and did not accept it. Therefore during a mere a new production of the opera Julietta with stage • • • ten days he created a new composition. The original director Katjy Cellnik, set designer Vera Bonsen, and Visit the revised web pages of the IBMS at the ad- score was not found until the 1960s and remains a conductor Dietfried Bernet. The opening is planned dress: http://www.martinu.cz/ibms.htm very little-known composition to this day. for 17 July 2002 and will be accompanied by several • • • other events including a conference, a workshop, You can find more news about CDs on the web pages of and an exhibit. the Martinů Foundation and the Martinů Institute: More detailed information will be given in the next http://www.martinu.cz/recordings.htm issue. Paul Kaspar is planning to record Martinů’s complete • • • piano works for the Tudor label. The first compact The South Bohemian Theater in České Budějovice is preparing a production of the opera Den dobročin- nosti (Day of Good Deeds), H. 194. This is a fragment of two acts of an opera to a libretto by G. Ribemont- -Dessaignes from 1931 which has never yet been performed. The idea of mounting its first perfor- mance came from the late conductor Václav Nosek, who in the 1960s and 1970s premiered a whole series of operas Martinů composed during his Parisian period. This task has been taken over by the obo- ist Milan Kaňák Copies of the autograph score and piano-vocal score are available at the Martinů Institute along with the libretto in German and French. News prepared by Jana Honzíková

to late romantic tendencies but set REVIEW fully into the compositional lan- guage he built over the course of his Bohuslav Martinů whole life. A curious feature is a sort of period at the end of the whole Duos and Trio for Strings recording - the instructive Piece for Two Violoncellos, H. 377 from 1959, (complete set) lasting a minute. Michal Kaňka re- corded both cello parts separately Pavel Hůla, violin; Josef Klusoň, viola; Michal Kaňka, violoncello. and they were then mixed. Text in English, French, and German. Recorded 2000-01 in the Church In enumerating these pieces we of Saint Lawrence in Prague. DDD. 1 CD Praga Digitalis PRD 250 155 have counted only seven works. (distributed by Harmonia mundi) Apart from the above-mentioned String Trio No. 1, now lost, the In recent years Martinů’s chamber recorded a compact disc for Praga performers did not record the Sere- music has enjoyed much attention Digitalis this year featuring small nade No. 2 for Two Violins and Viola on the part of performers and pieces by Martinů for cello and piano from 1932, which is com-monly recording companies. However, (with pianist Jaromír Klepáč): PRD available but whose scoring would among the dozens of recordings 250 143. But whoever is responsible require enlisting another violinist, we often find only selections of for this complete recording, we owe which the performers probably certain works by this composer or them our gratitude. intentionally did not do. even more often individual works Martinů composed a total of eight In closing, a few words about the in combination with music by works for combinations of violin, players’ performance quality - be- other Czech composers or Martinů’s viola, and violoncello, of which this that the only work for trio here is the cause this is truly worthy of note. contemporaries. The French firm disc presents six; the discrepancy in String Trio No. 2, H. 238 from 1934 The fresh and very suggestive play- Praga Digitalis, however, set the number will be explained below. a two-movement work in Martinů’s ing is enhanced by into-national a higher goal in issuing this com- The chronological arrangement helps Parisian style. The Three Madrigals for purity and unusual timbral con- pact disc - to present to the musical the listener grasp the stylistic devel- Violin and Viola, H. 313 are sometimes sistency among the instru-ments. market Martinů’s complete works opment in Martinů’s chamber music, also called Duo No. 1 and come from The nature of the playing by all for violin, viola, and violoncello. although it led the author of the 1947 when Martinů stood firmly on three musicians attests not only One wonders whether this pro- booklet to engage in overly-detailed “American artistic turf”. We could to their maturity as soloists but gramming idea may have come biographical description. place the Duo No. 2 for Violin and Viola, also to their tremendous sense for from the performers themselves, The first work is the Duo for Violin and H. 331 from 1950 into the same stylis- playing in a chamber ensemble, which is not unusual today. I have Violoncello No. 1, H. 157 from 1927. It tic period. The Duo No. 2 for Violin and which creates problems for some in mind one member of this group should be preceded by the String Trio Violoncello, H. 371 from 1958 shows soloists. of three performers in particular: No. 1, H. 136 from 1923, but that work compositional maturity and the poetics Sandra Bergmannová cellist Michal Kaňka, who already is now missing, so we are not surprised of the composer’s late period - a return

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 15 Bohuslav Martinů’s Correspondence in the Held in the Estates of the Following People (in alphabetical order) Kateřina Maýrová

STANISLAV AUGUSTA (1915 - 1990) he is able to realize them all in quiet and peace. He also and the draft of the scenario for the opera the Czech poet mentions his friends who stayed in France and hopes to The Plays about Mary. meet them again in Paris. 1 copy of Martinů’s letter Most of the letters concern their collaboration. Nezval (probably Rome, 10 March, 1957) cooperated on the origin of the first part - the Prologue Martinů expresses his thanks for Augusta’s dedication JAROSLAV KVAPIL (1868 - 1950) of the composer‘s opera The Plays about Mary, when he the Czech theatre-producer, playwright and poet of his collection of poems from the Czech-Moravian set old French text on The Wise and Foolish Virgins into 1 Martinů’s letter (Polička, 23 September, 1928) Highlands. Czech and created the libretto for Martinů‘s radio-opera Congratulating the famous librettist of Dvořák‘s opera The Voice of the Forest. EDUARD BASS (1888 - 1946) Rusalka on his 60th birthday. The last from 1956 contains Martinu’s request for the the Czech writer and journalist 1 Martinů‘s letter (Paris, 16 April, 1933) STANISLAV MOJŽÍŠ-LOM (1883 – 1967) the Czech playwright and theatre-critic Martinů writes to Bass about his letter including the 4 Martinů’s letters from 1933 promised article and asks about the conditions of his (3 March, 29 March, 8 April, 25 June) work for the newspaper Lidové noviny. There are also 3 copies of Lom’s replies (7 March, 3 April, 16 May 1933) MILOSLAV BUREŠ (1909 - 1968) the Czech poet and writer Their letters illustrate an important moment in the 1 copy of Martinů’s letter (7th January, 1958) composer‘s middle creative period, throwing new light on the circumstances under which he intended to write Martinů is returning the poet‘s greetings for the New a new opera on Czech folk texts. Year, remembering their days spent together in Rome. This correspondence with Lom documents a new fact, He looks forward to the performance of the cantata that the creation of the opera cycle The Plays about Mary Romance of the Dandelions, he was unable to receive was preceded by an idea for the composition of the opera the broadcast of his other cantata Legend of the in the style of legends, to be composed in collaboration Smoke from Potato Fires. He sends his greetings to the with Mojžíš-Lom. Martinů wanted to use Lom‘s play composer Václav Trojan, who sent him a kind letter and Saint Wenceslas originally written in connection with his recordings. He is delighted with the progress of the the celebrations for the 1000th anniversary of the V. Nezval cantata The Opening of the Wells. He asks for some of martyrdom of the religious and spiritual patron of the Dvořák‘s music from the publisher Artia, Prague, and for Czech lands in the year 1929. Martinů‘s letters show release from jail of the Czech poet and translator Dr. a comedy written by V. K. Klicpera. new information that in 1933 he had already found, and Josef Palivec (1886 -1975). He turns to Nezval with a wanted to use, some legends on death from Brittany for strong appeal to intervene for Palivec’s liberty. There PAVEL EISNER (1889 - 1958) his intended opera. is a letter from Nezval’s wife Františka, sent to Martinů the Czech literary critic, publicist, poet (1 March 1959) with a sorrow for her dead husband, who and translator (of German-Jewish origin) did not succeed in this matter. Because of the unclear 1 Martinů’s letter (10 December, 1957) address Martinů never obtained the letter. Martinů expresses his thanks and delight in reading Eis- ner’s book “Chrám a tvrz” (The Temple and the Citadel), “VARIA” collection received as a Christmas present from the author. 1 letter from the young Martinů, not giving any precise address, name, location or date. OTOKAR FISCHER (1883 - 1938) According to the added notes by the previous owner of the Czech literary and theatre critic, literary historian, this letter: Mr. R. Havel - it most probably comes from poet, essayist, playwright, professor of German literatu- 1906. Its recipient was probably Martinů‘s previous re at Charles University, Prague, and translator teacher at Polička, Adolf Vaníček, who helped him to 2 Martinů’s letters study at Prague Conservatoire. (8 May, 1920) Martinů describes to Fischer a new scenario for the opera “UMĚLECKÁ BESEDA“ archive on a Japanese subject, which he intends to compose and the artists society asks for Fischer’s opinion of this new libretto. 1 Martinů’s letter to the society‘s publishing house Hudební Matice Umělecké Besedy (24 July, 1920, Polička) (Paris, 23 June, 1934) and concerning the He again requests help in finding Japanese poetry for piano-cycle of easy pieces (without any official title), his new opera libretto. which Martinů intended to revise for their future publication. RUDOLF KEPL (1876 - ?) The piece is difficult to determine, because from 1933 - the Czech journalist and editor 1935 in the thematic catalogue of Martinů‘s works there 3 copies of Martinů’s letters is no evidence of a similar cycle of piano compositions Martinů‘s letter to Lom (3 March, 1933) from the years 1924 - 1935 to be published by Umělecká Beseda - Childern‘s pieces, H. 221 (?) (ed. note). The first, a visiting-card from July 1924, thanks Kepl for VÍTĚZSLAV NEZVAL (1900 -1958) lending books, the second, a post-card from Polička to Martinů‘s friend, the Czech poet, 18 Martinů’s letters from 1943 -1948 to the Kepl in Paris, (21 August, 1925) with best wishes for his playwright and translator lawyer and music writer Dr. JAN LÖWENBACH vacation and memories of Paris, the third, a letter from 8 Martinů’s letters covering years 1926 -1956 (Paris, (1880 - 1972), and their 4 replies Prague to Kepl in Geneva, (2 March, 1935) informing him 2 March 1926; Paris, 25 June 1933; from 1944 - 1945. of the successful premiere of Martinů’s opera The Plays Paris, without date, probably 1933; probably about Mary in Brno‘s National Theatre (23 February, Malakoff, 7 May, 1935; Paris, 22 May 1935; As the Cultural Adviser of the Czech Information Service 1935). He tells Kepl about his new Paris flat, with a Paris, probably 6 May 1935; probably Nice; for the Czech Consulate in New York, he collaborated with garden at Malakoff, and new style of life in this capital. 6 January 1936; Roma, 18 December 1956) the Czech Press Agency and the weekly newspaper “The He has many plans for the future, but does not know if Czechoslovak”, giving information on the composer’s 16 New Research Museum of National Literature in Prague first performances in the United States. friend Stanislav Novák) and “1938 - 1945” (an auto-bi- As an expert in law for OSA (Czech Authors Organisati- ography about his life and work during those years). The The author Kateřina Maýrová has devoted many years on), he helped Martinů to enter the American Union of collection of the “Umělecká Beseda” also contains four to study of Martinu’s correspondence. Authors - ASCAP. articles by Jan Löwenbach on Bohuslav Martinů. (See also News - Books, page 14) During the years 1946 - 1947 he also supported Marti- The first (10 March, 1944) entitled “The New Violin Translation by David Freeman nů’s idea for his return home and intervened with Mr. Concerto by B. Martinů” tells about the performance Stránský, Minister for Education, for the composer’s of this work for the weekly “The Czechoslovak”, the promotion to a professorship at the new Academy of second (June 1944) “O Bohuslavu Martinů” describes Music in Prague, which has never been realized. his composition style, the third “Bohuslav Martinů goes Martinů’s first letter to Jan Löwenbach from Darien, (30 to Prague” is a reaction to the Prague Conservatoire’s June, 1943) tells about his hard work on the Symphony invitation to teach in Prague (Prof. Václav Holzknecht) No. 2. In the following letters, from the forties, he writes the fourth “Třetí symfonie B. Martinů provedena about his work on the Symphonies No. 3, 4 and 5, the v Bostonu” describes the third Symphony‘s premiere Sonata for flute and piano, String quartet No. 6, the (12 October, 1945). Oboe quartet and the Piano Concerto No. 3. Martinů’s letter, (September 10, 1947) addressed to JAN ZRZAVÝ (1890 - 1977) „Dear friends“, tells about his composition lessons the painter for Jan Novák. He says he is a very industrious and 2 letters and two post-cards from the composer‘s gifted pupil. sister Marie, from 1942 - 1954 , and many letters His last letter to Löwenbach, (11 February, 1948) is very from the composer‘s wife, Charlotte, to Zrzavý from important, because it provides evidence of his effort to 1961 - 1975. return home to Czechoslovakia just a fortnight before the Communist coup. He expected to return definitely The first letter from Martinů’s sister Marie (3 January, Martinůs, Zrzavý at the end of April, asking Löwenbach about the results 1942) expresses many thanks to the painter for his fi- and Nezval, Paris 1934 of obtaining a flat in Prague, and had not decided if he nancial support of the family at Polička, the second (19 would give lessons in composition, or just compose. January, 1942) tells Zrzavý about the arrival and visit of The letter to S. Mojžíš-Lom and photo of V. Nezval is pu- Besides this correspondence, there are also the typed the painter Alén Diviš in New York and the composer‘s blished with kind permission of the Museum of National copies of Martinů’s Czech articles “Stáňa” (about his musical activities in Boston. Literature in Prague. London Conference on 20th Century Music The 2nd Biennial Conference can authorities also viewed him with on 20th Century Music took place suspicion because of his absences at Goldsmiths College at the end of Gregory Terian abroad, his continuing contacts with June. The first session was devoted musicians in Czechoslovakia and the to exile and suppresed music and was fact that his music was being perfor- devised by Matthias Wurz ( University med there. of New York), an aspiring conductor Eric Lévi (Royal Holloway Colle-ge) to whom credit is due for promoting was concerned with the Nazi suppres- a stimulating event. sion of modernism in music after 1933 Mr. Wurz is engaged in research on following up with the contentious Austrian and Czech exiled composers, assertion that the refugee composers notably the conductor/ composers continued to be descriminated against Georg Tintner and Vítězslava Kaprá- after their arrival in Britain. lová to whom his lecture was devoted. In the case of Hans Krása for It must be said that although both example, who like Martinů studied left their countries in 1938, in other with Albert Roussel in Paris, his Sym- respects there could not be a greater phony was performed by Koussevitzky disparity in their circumstances. in Boston as long ago as 1927. George Tintner ended his life in 1999 at the Martinů with V. Kaprálová Szél knew Krása well and commis- age of 82 while Kaprálová died in 1940 and her father, Tři Studně 1938 sioned and performed the premiere at the age of 25 after a short illness. of his opera Betrothal in a Dream at She had no opportunity of returning phenomenon - and when our “little girl difficult to find another artist who had the German theatre in Prague in 1933 to her homeland. conductor” (as wrote English newspapers) to adapt to so many regimes or forms of where Krása was his assistant. The Kaprálová was studying compo-si- appeared before the or-chestra, she was state system, inasmuch as Martinů lived distinguished cellist Raphael Som- tion with Martinů in Paris and readers welcomed by a suppor-tive audience. She for many years in France (whose citizen mer was also iterned at Terezín and will be familiar with the details of her stood before the orchestra with great cou- he considered himself to be), in the USA as a boy sang in performances of Brun- short and tragic life. They may be rage and both her work and performance ( whose citizen he actually became), and dibar at the camp. Yet Krása hardly interested in the following account earned her respect and applause from the frequently visited Western Europe after rates a mention in the pre- 1990 by Martinů of her concert at the 1938 excellent BBC Orchestra, the audience and the Second World War (mostly France, reference books. ISCM Festival in London which Mr. the critics (...) Vítězslava Kaprálová’s in- Italy and Switzerland). Other composers have suffered Wurz included in his paper: ter-national debut is a success, promising Although Martinů avoided any sort of periods of neglect after their deaths. “...The very first item in the pro- and encouraging.” political involvement after the war, as is Gustav Mahler’s symphonies did not gramme of the festival was the Milita- (English translation by Karla Hartl wel known, he was regarded with extreme achieve a regular place in British ry Sinfonietta by Vítězslava Kaprálová courtesy of the Kaprálová Society) suspicion by the communist regime in Cze- concert programmes until the 1960s. - an opening with great promise for Aleš Březina’s lecture which fol- choslovakia although they made efforts In the case of the Terezín composers both the festival and the composer. lowed was concerned with the plight of to woo him back to his homeland. Mr. perhaps it has simply taken half Her performance was awaited with Bohuslav Martinů during the enforced Březina threw new light on the composers a century for the pendulum to swing. interest as well as some curiosity - a years of exile. He contended that even situation in the United States, suggesting girl with a baton is quite an unusual in the turbulent 20th century it would be that in the era of McCarthyism the Ameri-

Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter 2001 - Third issue 17 Martinů and his homeland WHERE MARTINŮ IS AT HOME The Bohuslav Martinů Memorial in Polička Ludmila Sadílková The Bohuslav Martinů Memorial is a separate division of the Municipal Museum in Polička, The Bohuslav Martinů Newsletter is pub- which was founded in 1880. The beginnings for the division were established already in 1934, lished when a display case devoted to the Polička native Bohuslav Martinů was added to the museum. by The International Bohuslav Martinů Most of the autographs are available THE ARCHIVE Final Grade Report Society in The most valuable part of the Me- in the form of facsimiles at the Bohuslav collaboration with morial is undoubtedly the archive. Martinů Institute in Prague. The same The Bohuslav Martinů Museum employees began assembling goes for photographs, which are now Institute in Prague its extensive source materials already available in digitalized form. with the financial in the 1930s; at that time the collec- Also deposited in the archive of the support of tions consisted mainly of newspaper Bohuslav Martinů Memorial are col- The Bohuslav Martinů and ma-gazine articles, reviews, and lections from the estates of Charlotte Foundation programs. The year 1957 was a milestone Martinů, Marie Martinů, Miloš Šafránek, in Prague in the history of the Memorial when the and Karel Šebánek. Additional collec- “ com-poser’s sister Marie Martinů depos- tions are devoted to Miloslav Bureš, Editor: Vítězslava Kaprálová, the Activity of the Jana Honzíková ited in the museum the first extensive Associate editor: col-lection of autographs of Martinů’s Bohuslav Martinů Memorial, and Musical Sandra Bergmannová works, primarily autographs from his Life in Polička. Translation: David Beveridge early pre-Parisian period. In 1977 Char- Photos: lotte Martinů transferred this collection THE PERMANENT EXPOSITION Archive of the into the permanent owner-ship of the The first permanent exposition Bohuslav Martinů Institute Municipal Museum and also donated devoted to Bohuslav Martinů was es- Graphic design: additional autographs by the composer. tablished in the museum in 1945 and Attila Belák Since the 1950s the museum has also ceremonially opened on the composer’s Printing: fifty-fifth birthday, 8 December 1945. Agentura Křídla been acquiring valuable Martinů sources Nám. Barikád 3 from other individual donors and via This exposition was significantly ex- Prague 3, 130 00 purchases. panded in 1957 when it was divided into The Bohuslav Martinů The archive’s various collections several parts. One part was devoted to Newsletter is printed on recycled paper contain in all about 1,500 autographs the composer’s life and others to ballet It is published of Bohuslav Martinů including musical works, opera, chamber music, piano three times a year autographs, correspondence, various contemplations, commen- and orchestral works, vocal works, and (with special emphasis) The Cover: Martinů’s relation to Polička. The present exposition, mounted in Photo from the film taries, librettos written in Martinů’s hand, etc. The Museum owns The Amazing Flight letters of Bohuslav Martinů addressed to many persons and insti- 1984 primarily from the rich archival collections of the Memorial, by Václav Beneš tutions: to his family in Polička and to Miloslav Bureš, Stanislav offers a cross-section of the composer’s life and work presented Seat: Novák, Karel Novák, Miloš Šafránek, Karel Šebánek, the Melantrich via photographs, slides, drawings, set models, and costume de- The International signs. Since 1990 an audio-visual room has also been available Bohuslav Martinů Society publishing house, persons and institutions in Polička, etc. Also Acacialaan 28 found in the archive are letters received by Bohuslav, Charlotte, allowing visitors to view biographical documentary films about B 1820 Steenokkerzeel and Marie Martinů from various persons and institutions such as for Martinů and listen to recordings of his music. Belgium Tel. /Fax: +320-16-65 50 57 example Karel Ančerl, Miloslav Bureš, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Karel Van Eycken Mischa Elman, Rudolf Firkušný, Rafael Kubelík, Rudolf Kundera, MARTINŮ’S BIRTHPLACE president IN THE TOWER OF ST. JAMES’S CHURCH E-mail: Charles Linbergh, Charles Munch, Georges Neveux, Václav Talich, karel.vaneycken15@ Nikos Kazantzakis, the Boosey and Hawkes firm, the Basel Chamber yucom.be Orchestra, the Czech Nonet, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Price for Vienna Concert Hall Association, the Zürich Municipal Theater, the non-members of IBMS: CZK 50, 70 Bfrs, Czech Philharmonic, and Israeli Music Publications. 4 DM, 2 $, 2 Euro Office of IBMS Additional extensive collections in the archive and editorial office: The Bohuslav Martinů of the Bohuslav Martinů Memorial include: Institute - facsimiles of musical autographs Nám. Kinských 3 - part of Martinů’s library 150 00 Prague 5 Tel: +420-2-57 31 31 04 (mainly donated by Charlotte Reber in 1997) Tel/Fax: +420-2-57 32 00 76 - original photographs of Bohuslav Martinů with members of e-mail: [email protected] the Martinů family, Charlotte Martinů, friends, performers of www.martinu.cz Martinů’s works, and places where the composer lived or stayed The small room where Bohuslav Martinů was born has been Secretary of IBMS: Jindra Jilečková - personal documents, school reports, diplomas, official communi- open to the public since 1947, when the Martinů family donated e-mail: [email protected] cations, and other significant documents pertaining to Bohuslav the furnishings of this room, mostly original, to the museum. The The preceding Martinů and members of his family same painting patterns were also used on the walls of the room issue: - clippings, programs, and posters from 1910 to the present - according to preserved paper stencils. Recently the entire fur- - written materials and photographs pertaining to stage works nishings were restored with financial support from the Bohuslav - costume and set designs (both two-dimensional and Martinů Foundation. three-dimensional), poster designs - printed editions of works by Martinů Contact: The Bohuslav Martinů Memorial - specialized library of materials about Bohuslav Martinů Tylova 114, 572 01 Polička, Czech Republic - collection of videocassettes, compact discs, audiocassettes, films Tel./Fax: +420-463-72 40 56 Tel.: +420-463-72 57 69 on reels, and reel tape recordings E-mail: [email protected] - three-dimensional objects from the possessions of the Martinů family Internet: www.muzeum.policka.net - originals of librettos 18 erdmannpeisker

Internationale Musikfesttage B. Martinů

Vom 18. November bis 2. Dezember 2001 in Basel unter der künstlerischen Leitung von Robert Kolinsky

Sonntag 18. November, 19.00 h, im Stadtcasino, Hans Huber Saal Dimitri Ashkenazy, Klarinette und Robert Kolinsky, Klavier spielen Brahms, Hajdu (Uraufführung), Martinu und Poulenc Ansprache durch Josef Suk, Schirmherr der Int. Musikfesttage B. Martinu

Mittwoch 21. November, 20.30 h, im Stadtkino Basel „Paul Sacher - Portrait dumécene en musicien“ ein Film von Edna Politi Anschliessend Gespräch mit Edna Politi und Jürg Erni

Sonntag 25. November, 19.00 h, im Stadtcasino, Hans Huber Saal „Panocha Quartett“ spielt Smetana, Martinů und Dvořák 18.15 h Einführung durch Dr. Jakob Knaus, Redaktor Radio DRS 2

Mittwoch 28. November, 19.00 h Kinderkonzert im Museum Jean Tinguely Konzept Sylwia Zytynska, Leitung Kaspar Zwicky, Moderation Rica-Maria Cathomen

Sonntag 2. Dezember, 19.00 h, im Museum Jean Tinguely „Ensemble Basilisk“ spielt Milhaud, Novák, Stravinsky, Martinů unter der Leitung von Peter-Lukas Graf Einführung durch Alesˇˇ Brezina, Direktor des Instituts Bohuslav Martinu, Prag

Information: www.martinu.ch. Vorverkauf: Musik Hug Basel, Tel. 061 272 33 95 oder BaZ am Aeschenplatz, Tel. 061 281 84 84