Any CD which presents world première
recordings from Martinů’s
prodigious output can do little wrong
in my book, and any Martinů fan
will want to add this disc to their
collection. It is in no way a completist’s
mishmash of oddities, and contains much
which will have you wondering why such
gems have been ignored until today.
As a recital programme
this is little short of perfect, with
a great deal of variety and range. There
are some choice piano solos to give
the singer a rest,
and almost the full gamut of Martinů’s
modes – lacking only the deepest profundities
we find in some of his chamber or orchestral
work. Texts are split between French
and Czech, and the 1930s songs do have
a little of the Poulenc/Satie flavour
to them. Martinů’s
jazz style crops up in Saltimbanques
(‘Acrobats’ from Trois mélodies)
and the Vocalise-Etude, and weightier
drama (Dvĕ balady) is balanced
against lighter, sometimes playful lyricism
(Čtyři
písnĕ).
I have one minor beef
with the labelling. In my opinion it
is always better to put, for instance:
From: Trois mélodies (1930)
– Saltimbanques (or a variant of
same) rather than just announcing the
set as if it were complete and making
the listener hunt in the text to find
out why there is only one song
– at first I thought it might be some
kind of Dadaist joke, which would be
a first for Martinů! Talking of
jokes, I’m probably displaying my ignorance
but there is something strange going
on with tracks 21 and 22 (numbers two
and three from Three Christmas
Songs), which patently have nothing
whatever to do with Christmas.
There
is a decent helping of Martinů’s
later style in Novy Špalíček,
and the recital is satisfyingly
completed with Sestra Paskalina from
The Miracles of Mary, a passionate and
heartfelt prayer in extremis.
Olga
Černá has an attractive, slightly
silvery coloured voice, which fortunately
lacks the doleful heaviness which makes
some mezzos less than appealing at length.
There are one or two glottal breaks
here and there, but this is a recording
which will stand much repetition. A
fairly trivial drawback is the slightly
boxy piano sound, which shows up most
during the solo works. I suspect this
might be technicians struggling against
too small an acoustic, although the
reverb has a natural generosity which
is entirely suited to the repertoire.
This is the only Naxos budget trade-off:
a more expensive venue (or piano) might
have tipped the balance here (if the
sound engineers among you will excuse
my pun). Unhesitatingly recommended.
Dominy Clements
see also review
by Rob Barnett