Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
String Quartet No. 7, “Concerto da camera,” H314 (1947)
The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon, for piano, H318 (1948)*
Les Rondes, H200 (1930)*
Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915–40)
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8 (1935)
Bohuslav Martinů
Variations on a Slovak Theme, H378 (1959)*
*Works performed by Danny Driver
In this thoughtfully curated concert with commentary, scholars-in-residence Michael Beckerman and Aleš Březina present chamber works by Martinů and his gifted composition student Vítězslava Kaprálová, with whom he was in love.
Folk idioms permeate Kaprálová’s accomplished First String Quartet, as they do so much of Martinů’s music, from the six instrumental miniatures of Les Rondes, which include some of his earliest uses of Moravian folk song, to the Variations on a Slovak Theme for cello and piano, written just months before he died. Yet Martinů’s characteristic sound reflects a wide and eclectic range of influences. The composer reveals a Stravinskyan approach to rhythm and dissonance in Les Rondes; draws on his love of Renaissance madrigals in the heartfelt slow movement of his Seventh String Quartet, “Concerto da camera”; and experiments with pentatonic harmonies in The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon, written for Lee Hsien-Ming, the first female pianist to graduate from the Shanghai Conservatory, and the wife of his friend Alexander Tcherepnin.