Martinu: Double Concerto; Concerto for string quartet and orchestra; Tre Ricercari

The String Quartet Concerto is an work from when Martinu was still overly influenced by Stravinsky and Les Six. The outer movements have motor rhythms, spicy harmonies and some rather unsubtle percussion writing; the central slow movement is rather too angular to provide the lyrical relief that would perhaps have been a good idea.

Moving on to 1938, the Tre Ricercari are a set of three pieces for a small chamber orchestra with two concertante pianos. Again, they are not amongst Martinu's best works, though stylistically they mark a great advance on the previous work.

Later in that year, Martinu wrote one of his first outright masterpieces, the Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani. This is an exceptionally intense work, the brooding motor rhythms of the outer movements counterbalanced by a bleak, introspective central Adagio.

The Toccata e due canzoni is for small orchestra with piano, written in 1946, and is a work that mixes the best and worst of Martinu. The rhythmically intense Toccata starts in the bass and is an astonishing essay in obsessively maintaining a bleak mood, but the two Canzoni are less consistent and tend to be at their best when recalling the mood of the Toccata.

1950's Sinfonietta La Jolla is a lighter piece, though for roughly the same scoring as the Toccata e due canzoni. Two rhythmic outer movements sandwich a lyrical slow movement. The rhythms are rather less obsessive and the structures less tight than in previous works, as by this stage Martinu was starting to move into his final rhapsodic phase.

Les Fresques de Piero Della Francesca was one of Martinu's last orchestral works. Written in 1955, this shows a very different face even to the Sinfonietta La Jolla. Much more rhapsodic, less dissonant and more loosely structured, this work is also stunningly orchestrated and a fount of endless melody. It is without doubt one of the finest of Martinu's works, and a classic of the 20th century.

The performances here are not entirely consistent--they're probably best in the Tre Ricercari and the two major works (Fresques and the Double Concerto) though none of them are unacceptable. Unfortunately the sound on these recordings is rather dry, and this does affect the enjoyability of some of the performances--leaving them lacking a feeling of joy. Nonetheless, this collection can be recommended with reservations to collectors on a low budget, as it does supply recordings of some hard-to-acquire pieces. (Incidentally, my copy has CD2's tracks on CD1 and vice versa, so if you get confused by works appearing to have the wrong instrumentation, that's probably what's wrong.)