Martinu - Concerto Grosso H.263 (1937)

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I. Allegro non Troppo - 0:00
II. Adagio - 4:46
III. Allegretto - 10:19

"A delightful, crisp, witty neo-Classical piece, this Concerto Grosso had an uncommon run of political bad luck before finally premiering, then paved the way for the composer's subsequent success.

Bohuslav Martinu found himself becoming quite well-known among the foreign musicians living in Paris between the wars. But his reputation also was growing back in Prague, and he was beginning to think of moving back there. Meanwhile, he had joined a Paris chamber music society called "Triton". The society commissioned this concerto from Martinu, scheduling it for a 1938 performance by its own orchestra under the direction of Charles Munch.

With the work accepted for performance not just in Paris, but also in Prague Martinu's publisher began preparation for printing a score and preparing the orchestral parts. Unfortunately, the publisher was a Viennese firm, and Hitler's annexation of western Czechoslovakia resulted in the cancellation of the publication. They returned the materials, but the German authorities also canceled the Prague concert. Finally, the Paris concert was rescheduled for 1940, but this was also canceled when the Germans invaded that year.

In 1941 he found himself a virtually unknown refugee in New York, where yet a fourth scheduled world premiere was planned. Martinu himself wrote notes recounting this history. It attracted the attention of the press, which publicized the Concerto Grosso with "Hitler Followed His Concerto Grosso to Three Countries." Sergey Koussevitzky conducted the Boston Symphony in November, 1941, in a premiere that was a huge success and led to further commissions for concertos and symphonies.

This work preserves the traditional structure and style of a Baroque concerto grosso. Each of the three movements in this 15-minute work has, generally, a single mood and springs from a single opening idea and alternates between full-ensemble sound and thinner "solo" sections.

The first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, is a driving toccata with tart, delicious dissonances. The mood is paradoxically deliberate and playful. In the same notes, Martinu said the whole movement is built on "a little rhythmic germ." The middle movement, Adagio, is essentially a lyrical piece, quite expressive in mood. The finale is in a rondo form and is marked Allegro. The two pianos lead it off by announcing a high-spirited theme. In a later section, the piano theme is almost covered by active polyphonic texture from the orchestra, then the roles are reversed, with the orchestra taking the theme and the pianos providing rapid counterpoint."
Joseph Stevenson