FR
New issue of Martinů Revue is out!
The final issue of the Martinů Revue for 2018 is now available. The volume contains a story about Jiří Bělohlávek's last recording of music by Martinů, an photo exhibition of the composer, excerpts of recent publications, and details about outstanding concerts featuring Czech classical music. You can find all the content here.
Frank Peter Zimmermann, who appears on the front cover of the magazine, is an artist who frequently plays the music of Bohuslav Martinů in concerts all over the world. Though the famous violinist regularly performs Martinů's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2, last year he turned focused his attention on the rather neglected First Concerto. Under conductor Jakub Hrůša, Zimmerman has performed the First concerto with the Czech Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The new issue of the Magazine carries a review of the Berlin concert as well as an interview with Mr. Zimmermann. "Martinů has his own peculiar musical voice. His music defies simple categorisation because it is very dynamic. At times impressionist, at times expressive, at times very rhythmical, and then very vocal and lyrical. It eludes any kind of stylistic classification.(...) [The Violin Concerto] is pure joy to play," he says.
The Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition has already received several favourable reviews in specialised periodicals all over the world including Nigel Simeon's review in Notes (September 2016, pp. 166-170). The latest review, by renowned Czech musicologost Jiří Zahrádka is reprinted in the new Martinů Revue; it was published recently in Czech in the peer-reviewed journal Opus Musicum. "The somewhat battered reputation of our publishing efforts should be remedied by the Bohuslav Martinů Institute and the Bärenreiter publishing house. [.] The first volumes of the Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition show promise of an extraordinary feat of publishing," writes Jiří Zahrádka.
Last year, another new volume of the Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition was released. The new critical edition of Martinů's Quadruple Concertos was first introduced at the benefit concert for the Bohuslav Martinů Institute, where the famous harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani performed works of Viktor Kalabis, Johann Sebastian Bach and Bohuslav Martinů. Petr Veber writes about this event extensively in the Martinů Revue.