Frank Martin Archive
Streams and Podcasts, 16 Feb 2018
In honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, we celebrate conductor Victor Desarzens, who led the ensemble from 1942 to1973. Of the many highlights of his career, Desarzens is to be particularly noted for his re-vitalization of baroque music as well as championing contemporary composers. The show will feature works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Hindemith, Malipiero, and Frank Martin. Host Gary Lemco will be presenting this show on Sunday evening, 18 February 2018, from the sponsoring station KZSU in Stanford, as well as concurrent streaming broadcast on the ‘Net at kzsu.stanford.edu. The show runs from 19:00 to 21:00, PST.
FRANK MARTIN: Music for Winds—MSR Classics
A lost Suite from a pageant by Frank Martin is melodic and rhythmically incisive. FRANK MARTIN: Music for Winds—Concerto pour les instruments a vent et le piano—Concert Suite from Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943—Zwischen Rhone Und Rhein—Massachusetts Chamber Players/Matthew Westgate—MSR Classics, MS1602, 53:28, ****: In 2016 I reviewed a recording of Swiss composer Frank Martin’s (1890-1974) complete play Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943 (CPO 777 997-2). This is a performance of the concert suite along with his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (Concerto pour les instruments a vent et le piano) and the march (Zwischen Rhone und Rhein). At the suggestion of the composer’s wife Maria, the suite (probably written by the composer) was published in 2004. In the middle of the horrors of World War II (1943) Swiss mime artist Mariette von Meyenburg, asked her uncle Frank Martin to compose music for a theatrical performance that would portray death in a new way. The work’s purpose was to see death “as a positive happenstance and …to express in music that kind of peace with death,” as stated in the program notes for the performance. Martin liked this characterization, which comes from the central European […]
Frank MARTIN: Music for Winds = Concerto for Winds & Piano; Concert Suite; March – Massachusetts Chamber Players/ Nadine Shank, piano – MSR Classics
Wind music by Swiss composer Frank Martin embodies the pacifist nation’s virile national identity. MARTIN: Music for Winds = Concerto for Winds Instruments and Piano (1924); Concert Suite from “A Dance of Death in Basel in the Year 1943”; Official March of the Swiss National Exhibition – Massachusetts Chamber Players/ Nadine Shank, piano – MSR Classics MS 1602, 53:28 (10/1/17) [Distr. by Albany] ****: Conductor Matthew Westgate organized the Massachusetts Chamber Players in the fall of 2016 specifically for this recording project (rec. 4-5 November 2016) of music by Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974). The ensemble consists primarily of woodwind, brass and percussion faculty member musicians from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and artist teachers from the Five-College Consortium of Western Massachusetts. Several UMass alumni and student musicians, western Massachusetts freelancer musicians and guest players complete the instrumentation. The Department of Music and Dance of UMass Amherst represents one of the largest music programs in New England, providing more than 250 performance and concert opportunities each year across seventeen instrumental ensembles, six vocal groups and numerous solo and ensemble recital series. Noted leaders in the fields of performance, pedagogy and scholarship, the UMass faculty create a community at UMass […]
FRANK MARTIN: Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943 – ARMAB Orch. – Breda Sacrament Choir/ Hineni String Orch./ Bastiaan Blomhert – CPO
A unique play reveals music of substance from Swiss composer Frank Martin. FRANK MARTIN: Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943 – ARMAB Orch. – Breda Sacrament Choir/ Hineni String Orch./ Basel Side Drums/ Bastiaan Blomhert – CPO 777 997-2, 66:08, ****: B01HOU7GMI This CD is an example of how many amazing works of well-known composers come to light as a result of the collaboration between dedicated musicians and the relatives of deceased composers. In 2006 Maria Martin, wife of Frank Martin (1890-1974), suggested the publication of the suite of the music from her husband’s 1943 music to the theatrical performance of Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahr 1943. Enter conductor Bastiaan Blomhert, who deemed the complete work a masterpiece, and organized the resources to make this recording. In the middle of the horrors of World War II, Swiss mime artist Mariette von Meyenburg, asked her uncle Frank Martin to compose music for a theatrical performance that would portray death in a new way. The work’s purpose, was to see death “as a positive happenstance and …. to express in music that kind of peace with death,” as stated in the program notes for the performance. Martin liked this characterization, […]
Trios from Our Homelands” – REBECCA CLARKE: Piano Trio; ARNO BABAJANIAN: Piano Trio; FRANK MARTIN: Trio on Pop Irish Melodies – Lincoln Trio – Cedille
We got a duplicate of this, so here is a second review opinion on the same recent CD. “Trios from Our Homelands” – REBECCA CLARKE: Piano Trio; ARNO BABAJANIAN: Piano Trio in f-sharp; FRANK MARTIN: Trio on Popular Irish Melodies – Lincoln Trio – Cedille CDR 9000 165, 64:15 ****: Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) narrowly lost the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Award in 1919 for her Viola Sonata. When Mrs. Coolidge revealed the runner-up, she reported, “You should have seen [the judges’] faces when they saw [the sonata] was written by a woman.” It was unheard of for a woman to be a composer in the early 20th century. Clarke also narrowly lost the award in 1921 for her Piano Trio. She went on to write songs and chamber music and lived until the ripe age of 93. Clarke’s Piano Trio is a work of considerable emotional substance and musical creativity. The piano boldly opens the first movement which theatrically alternates sensitive lyricism with rhapsodic drama, ending quietly. The viola sings a wistful lullaby in the folk-like Andante. The cheerful last movement opens with a dance between the strings and piano which is broken by an ardent interlude. The ending […]
“Trios from Our Homelands” = REBECCA CLARKE: Piano Trio; ARNO BABAJANIAN: Piano Trio; MARTIN: Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises – Lincoln Trio – Cedille
A lovely disc of neglected and highly worthy trios. “Trios from our Homelands” = REBECCA CLARKE: Piano Trio; ARNO BABAJANIAN: Piano Trio in f-sharp; FRANK MARTIN: Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises – Lincoln Trio – Cedille 90000 165, 1:04:08 (8/12/16) [Distr. by Naxos] *****: The three members of the Lincoln Trio are using their varied ethnic backgrounds as the premise for this superb collection of little-known but outstanding piano trios. None will be very well-known to most people, though the Trio on Popular Irish Melodies, an early work of no little importance, will be recognized by some. Martin is a greatly underrated, underestimated, and certainly underperformed composer whose music is always rewarding. For those put off by some of the later, more complex works, this Trio is a grand place to start, an open invitation to a sound world that would increasingly develop in sophistication and melodic imagination as time went on. Most astute listeners know the name of Rebecca Clarke even though they can’t name one piece by her that they have heard. This 1922 Trio is remarkable for its vigorous technical difficulties, couched in a mélange of on-the-fence late romantic harmonies and nicely-crafted melodic lines. Though British, […]
“Groteske” = Works by KIEREN MACMILLAN; KORNGOLD; JÉRÔME BERNEY; FRANK MARTIN; JEROME BERNEY – Gall
Both these albums feature works of musical fusion. Both have their attractions as well as drawbacks; the recorded sound is an issue for me.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
