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Price: $600.00 |
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MINT CONDITION |
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Autographed musical quotation of the opening two bars of the great Czech composer’s first ballet “Špalíček”, New York, 1946. The autograph is on a 3.5” x 6.5” prepared blank card. Martinu (1890-1959) moved to France in 1923 ostensibly to study with Albert Roussel. He remained there until 1940. In 1931, Martinu began working on an ambitious stage work, a ballet which would turn out to be his first “complicated” work with multiple acts and scenes. The ballet is based upon Bohemian folkloric fairy tales which was a departure from the modernist work he had written thus far. The ballet is broken into three acts and multiple scenes: I. Fairy Tales scene 1: Rooster and Hen scene 2. The Tale of Puss and Boots Scene 3. Children’s Games: a. The Game of the Maidens, b. The Water Sprite c. The Wolf Scene 4. The Story of the Magic Sack II. Cinderella (Bohemian version) 3 scenes III. Fairy Tales Scene 1: The Legend of St. Dorothy Scene 2. The Legend of the Phantom Bridegroom The work was given its’ World Premiere in Prague in 1933. Serge Koussevitzky ran a subscription concert series in Paris from 1921 to 1928. The concerts were held in the Summertime even after he accepted the position of Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1924. A chance meeting at a Café in 1927 led to Koussevitzky premiering Martinu’s “La Bagerre” in Boston in November of that year. In 1939 Martinu tried to join the Czech Resistance and was found to be too old. He wrote a work in honor of the Resistance which was performed in London and broadcast in Prague. Heard by the Nazi’s he was immediately censored in Czechoslovakia despite the fact he was living in France. After the invasion of France by the Nazi’s in 1941, Martinu fled to Spain, then Portugal and then with the help of Paul Sacher on to the United States and planted his roots in New York City. Pianist Rudolf Firkusny, violinist Samuel Dushkin and cellist Frank Rybka, already living here helped him get started here. Koussevitzky immediately accepted his new Concerto Grosso for a Premiere in Boston and a long and fruitful partnership was formed, leading to many works written for the BSO and a teaching position at Tanglewood in 1946. Martinu remained in the United States until 1953.
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BOHUSLAV MARTINU - COMPOSER |
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Phone: 212-860-5541 * Fax: 917-677-8247
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