Martinu chamber music

H

hamarplazt

100% No Soul Guaranteed
Right now there's a record-and-book-fair-kinda-thing in the city where I live, lasting for a month with prices decreasing, and they have a lot of classical records. Among them is quite a bit of chamber music by czeck composer Bohuslav Martinu, mostly string and piano quartets, and I'm a bit tempted to buy them, as I have a fondness for modern east european chamber stuff. However, I've often been rather disappointed by Martinu (and many other modern czeck composers, actually), so I'm not really sure. He's often rather ordinary and mediocre, but then also sometimes truly great. Now, I don't know much of his chamber works, I've mostly heard the orchestral ones, so my question is: Do anyone know if there's any difference between his chamber and orchestral music - in terms of quality as well as style - and if there's any of his quartet works that are absolutely worth getting. What I'm basically after is something with that particular czeck sound found in Janaceks chamber music as well as the soundtracks for Svankmajer movies.
 
R

Rambler

Awanturnik
Yeah, Martinu is a bit like Milhaud in some ways - hugely prolific, and as a result his output can be really patchy. I don't know much about his music, but summarizing what the New Grove says about him:

early 1920s, he was strongly influenced by impressionism

1923-1930 - got into jazz and ragtime, met Stravinsky and Les Six (Honnegger, Milhaud, Poulenc etc), then moved into a neo-classical phase (like Stravinsky)

1930s - rediscovered his Czech nationalism, and after 1953 his music was particularly Czech-influenced; he died in 1959.

Without knowing much about the pieces themselves, I'd say you're probably looking at works from the 1950s if you're after that gritty, Czech sound. In general, the symphonies are his best works, but the chamber music is probably worth a modest punt.
 
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