Search - Robert Kolinsky, So Basel, Ashkenazy :: Martinu

A gorgeous-sounding CD full of lush, easy-listen music

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It must be me, but Martinu's music all sounds alike, and after ten minutes it turns into glittering wallpaper. Having laid those cards on the table, this CD is valuable for several reasons. First, Ondine's recorded sound is very impressive, as is the playing of the Basel orchestra. Ashkenazy throws himself into each work, and pianist Robrt Kolinsky is described as a Martinu specialist. The program includes one of the composer's most dramatic orchestral works, the Frescos of Piero della Francesca, which is probably the best starting point for anyone enrolling in Martinu 101, along with an ebullient overture, blandly titled Overture for Orchestra, and two splashy piano concertos. The Second sounds like updated Saint-Saens froufrou to me, but the Fourth ventures into modernist angularity a la Hindemith. If you're only buying one Martinu CD, this is the one.



Martinu taught at Princeton during his exile from Czechoslovakia, and although it's rare to hear his symphonies outside his homeland, CZech orchestras regard them as staples. Martinu loved shimmering textures and half realized melodies; his keyboard writing is in constant motion; his orchestration depends on block chords and massed sonorities, with few breaks for solo passages. These qualities result in a "wall of sound" that makes his longer pieces tend toward sameness. Given his very conservative harmonies and lackluster development sections, I'm reminded not of other Czech composers but of mid-century Americans like Howard Hanson and Alan Hovhanaess. If you like their atmospheric easy-listen style, Martinu's is cut form the same cloth. I realize that Martinu experts will scoff, pointing to much that is unique in the composer's works; my perspective is that of one listener alone.



For all the caveats, this is a gorgeous-sounding CD with swelling, lush music to ravish the ear. It makes a good case for hearing more form this neglected composer, and the fiftieth anniversary of his death is as good an occasion as any for a revival."