This is Volume 3 of the complete music for violin and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu, one of the most overlooked composers of all time currently in the repertory. I reviewed Volume 1 here and loved every minute of that album. Tom Gibbs took a stab at Volume 2 and was likewise quite enchanted. On this disc we have a rather unusual piece that suffered a tortured performance history, that of the Suite Concertante for violin and orchestra.
The work was completed in 1939 and was not heard from again in orchestral guise for 50 years. The original had five movements, a Scherzo Caprice not being included here because the compiler of the suite on this recording found evidence that the composer had actually completed the movement, and he did not think it correct to formulate another orchestration of the section under those circumstances. However, this is a premiere recording of this work, and it seems sad to let it go incomplete, especially since Martinu’s scoring of the movement is nowhere to be found. The original dedicatee, Samuel Dushkin, tried many times to get noted Boston Symphony conductor Serge Koussevitsky to perform the work, but to no avail. Eventually all that was done was a violin-piano performance.
Martinu remained dissatisfied with this work, and Dushkin for some reason stopped performing it. This did not deter the composer from making yet another setting around 1943, this time almost entirely rewriting the piece. It does borrow some thematic material from the first version, but is in effect a complete reworking. It retains the characteristics of the first piece; rhythmical jauntiness, gorgeous melodies, and Martinu’s one-of-a-kind neoclassical harmonies. In other words, it is a terrific work, well worth anyone’s time. I cannot understand its neglect.
The Rhapsody-Concerto has not suffered the fate of the twins just discussed. This work for viola and orchestra is a marvel , the composer playing up to all of the warmth and lush richness the instrument can produce. And there is even a jazz feel—the first movement has passages that sound for all the world like they were lifted from Gershwin’s Concerto in F. The violinist/violist Bohuslav Matousek plays like a dream in this music, as he did in the earlier volumes, and collectors can rejoice that such an intelligent and illuminating series has come our way. The sound retains the same high standard as the previous issues. Top marks!
— Steven Ritter
