Bohuslav's Week

The 25th anniversary of CzechoSlovakian independence was celebrated musically last week by two U.S. symphony orchestras. The musical Czech of the hour was the occupied nation's foremost living composer, Bohuslav Martinu, now of Manhattan. In Cleveland (which has one of the largest Czech populations to be found in any U.S. city), Erich Leinsdorf conducted the premiere of Martinu's Second Symphony. In Manhattan, Artur Rodzinski conducted the premiere of a Martinu symphonic poem called Memorial to Lidice. In Philadelphia, Eugene Ormandy was rehearsing a third new Martinu composition, a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, with the help of duo-Pianists Pierre Luboshutz and Genia Nemenoff. In Boston, Sergei Koussevitzky was planning a December premiere for Martinu's third Violin Concerto.

Martinu's music got a fine critical reception. Though he inherits the great Czech tradition of Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak, Martinu does not work in their sunlit, melodically fecund vein. The emotional tone of his music is measured, but it has genuine dignity, drama and decided individuality. Softspoken, shy, 52-year-old Martinu grew up in the little Czech town of Policka, where his father was a shoemaker, played the violin for a decade with the famed Czech Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. In 1923 he went to Paris, stayed for nearly 20 years. A very serious man, who studies physics and biology for relaxation, he is too busy with new music to try to reconstruct many scores he was forced to leave in Europe.

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