New Concerto

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 945, 20 September 1957, Page 9

New Concerto

AMONG the works performed at the Edinburgh Festival this year was the Concerto No. 4, for piano and orchestra ("Incantation"), by the Czech composer Martinu. Rudolf Firkusny, who was the soloist for this first European performance, also played the world premiere of this work last October in the United States, with the Symphony of the Air under Leopold Stokowski. This is the third Martinu concerto that this pianist has introduced to the public. Bohuslav Martinu is one of the few contemporary composers of* serious music who quickly established contact with a large audience. Although a Czech, his name and work are perhaps better known in the U.S., where he has lived now for some 17 years. Martinu left his homeland voluntarily in the middle twenties to live in Paris, where he was influenced by Stravinsky, Roussel, the French Impressionists and American jazz. When France was overrun by the German armies in the summer of 1940, he was forced to flee, first to Aix-en-Provence, then, with the arrival of a visa, to America, where he has lived ever since. Living in America, it is said, has not made him an American composer. Instead of the Western elements in his music being reinforced, exile has instead meant a return to the deep-rooted sources of his native national feeling. As Firkusny has put it: "The mature master who wrote complicated scores in the French capital . . . mirroring an international milieu, has come home, musically, to the melodic simplicity and earthy rhythms of his homeland." Martinu’s Concerto No. 4 will be heard, played by Rudolf Firkusny with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik, in a Festival programme from all YCs at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, September 27. The other works to be heard in this programme are the Symphonic Variations, Op. 78, by Dvorak, and the Beethoven Fifth Symphony. Another Martinu work in this week’s programmes, the Sonata for violin and

piano, will be heard from 4YC at 8.55, Monday, September 23, played by Francis Rosner and Janetta McStay. Another programme from the Festival to be heard this week is a one hour recital of songs by the Spanish soprano Victoria de los Angeles, accompanied by Gerald Moore. After last year’s highly successful tour of New Zealand this singer needs little introduction to. listeners. Of her recitals at Edinburgh The Times music critic wrote: "Her Spanish songs are authentic, inimitable and irresistible ...a beautiful performance. . ." This programme will be heard from all YCs at 8.0 p.m., Sunday, September 29. = a — —