Word: martinu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...25th anniversary of CzechoSlovakian independence was celebrated musically last week by two U.S. symphony orchestras. The musical Czech of the hour was the occupied nation's foremost living composer, Bohuslav Martinu, now of Manhattan. In Cleveland (which has one of the largest Czech populations to be found in any U.S. city), Erich Leinsdorf conducted the premiere of Martinu's Second Symphony. In Manhattan, Artur Rodzinski conducted the premiere of a Martinu symphonic poem called Memorial to Lidice. In Philadelphia, Eugene Ormandy was rehearsing a third new Martinu composition, a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, with the help...
...Martinu's music got a fine critical reception. Though he inherits the great Czech tradition of Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak, Martinu does not work in their sunlit, melodically fecund vein. The emotional tone of his music is measured, but it has genuine dignity, drama and decided individuality. Softspoken, shy, 52-year-old Martinu grew up in the little Czech town of Policka, where his father was a shoemaker, played the violin for a decade with the famed Czech Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. In 1923 he went to Paris, stayed for nearly 20 years. A very serious...
...Humpty Dumpty on his wall, and neither Dr. Koussevitsky nor his orchestra have been able to put them together very coherently. I have heard enough late nineteenth and early twentieth century works to last me through three seasons. Music of such mediocrity as Lopatnikoff's Sinfonictta Opus 27, Martinu's 1st Symphony, Bennett's "Sights and Sounds," and Loeffler's "A Pagan Poem" have been foisted off under the wornout banner of "giving the other fellow a chance," or "Becthoven and Brahms were never appreciated by their contemporaries, either." The program of January 23, for instance, consisted...
...Budapest Quartet. The small audience politely applauded the work of Boston-born Walter Piston (Quintet for Flute and Strings), Brooklyn-born Aaron Copland (Birthday Piece, On Cuban Themes For Two Pianos), French-born Darius Milhaud (string quartet), California-born Frederick Jacobi (songs about the prophet Nehemiah), Czech-born Bohuslav Martinu (Trio for Flute, Violin and Piano). Hit of the evening came at the program's close with Russian-born Louis Gruenberg's Variations on a Popular Theme. It nearly brought discreet cheers. Composer Gruenberg's theme was The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze...
Just as his bustling Concerto Grosso was about to be heard for the first time-in Vienna-the Nazis arrived. Then the same thing happened in Prague; then in Paris. Last week, at last, Bohuslav Martinu, Czech modernist composer, heard the much-applauded premiere of his concerto, played by Serge Koussevitzky and his Symphony-in Boston, before the Nazis arrived...