Martinu: Concerto For Flute Violin & Orchestra, Duo Concertanate For Two Violins

Catalogue # CDA67671

Martinu:
Concerto for flute, violin and orchestra H252
Duo concertante for two violins and orchestra H264
Concerto in D major for two violins and orchestra H329

Bohuslav Matoušek (violin), Janne Thomsen (flute), Régis Pasquier (violin) & Jennifer Koh (violin)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood

“Written in Martinu's best 1930s concerto grosso style, the Duo concertante's three movements (fast-slow-fast) are limpidly scored, allowing the flowing, interweaving lines of the soloists to sound to best advantage; as the excellent bookletnotes say, 'an extraordinary musical experience'. For this equally vibrant recording, Régis Pasquier partners Bohuslav Matoušek while Jennifer Koh appears with Matoušek in the Concerto in D major (1950). Unlike its predecessor, the later work is in the standard 19th-century concerto format – one reason why Martinu did not number the works – and structurally quite different. For one thing, there is no real slow movement, the central span (dovetailed into the finale) being moderate in pace with a più vivo central section. In atmosphere it is one of those fleet-footed yet serene works in which Martinu's inspiration seems just to beam from ear to ear. This first volume, in what will be a series of four devoted to Martinu's concertante works for violin, is completed by another enchanting early double concerto, for flute and violin, penned in just 10 days in 1936. There is no hint of rush in its fresh and lively invention, the solo roles played with beguiling ease by Janne Thomsen and Matoušek. Accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic – in whose second violin section the composer played in the 1920s – this disc is an utter delight from start to finish.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010