Naxos have been good to Bohuslav Martinů: Giorgio Koukl
has recorded his complete solo piano music in seven volumes
and his five piano concertos in two; the Martinů Quartet
have recorded his seven string quartets on three discs; Arthur
Fagen and the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra have recorded
the six symphonies on three more; and Naxos have published seven
other discs of chamber music, plus one of choral (The Epic
of Gilgamesh).
Naxos also issued a CD of songs by Martinů back in 2005
- see review
- but then seemingly either had a change of heart or forgot
about it, because this new release is billed as "Songs, volume
1". These are, however, new soloists, and all the pieces are
different. Martinů wrote about 100 songs in total, so this
is quite likely the first of three volumes.
There are forty-one separate songs in this recital. Though at
a fraction under 80 minutes the disc is packed to the rafters
with music, that still means an average of well under two minutes
per song - in other words, these are not by any stretch substantial
pieces, and it is fair to say that they are not among Martinů's
most important or profound works. Indeed, around thirty per
cent of these songs were written before Martinů was even
23.
There are four songs in French - three anonymous, one by composer
Gustave Charpentier - and three in German, to texts of Goethe's.
All the rest are in Czech, from a variety of sources - anonymous
or folk texts, Czech poets and foreign writers in translation.
Subject matter is extremely varied, and Martinů reflects
that in his music, with humour, irony, tragedy, whimsy, bliss
and melancholy, without ever resorting to cliché.
This is Czech mezzo-soprano Jana Wallingerová's debut
CD. She has an agreeable, flexible voice which she controls
well. She sings the three Goethe-Lieder with a little bit of
an accent, whereas her French is more wayward - an acute-accented
'é' here and there, for example, where none should be
- though not disastrously so. She is naturally most comfortable
in Czech, and although none of the songs is fiendishly difficult,
Martinů's immense imagination keeps her, Koukl and listeners
all on their toes with a constant supply of unexpected chords,
leaps and other musical twists and turns - all of which and
more can be sampled together in the amusing Czech Riddles, H.277bis.
The song texts are not included in the booklet, but are downloadable
for free as usual from the Naxos website. The translations are
reasonably rendered on the whole, although some are less poetic
than one might wish: "Tell me, Mother, what is it with people
that they speak so ill of Friday? You are wise, so tell me,
why do people shun the priest like doom?" "'Tis then we go tripping
through woodland and grove." "Tell him he's stayed behind to
water his lovely little horse."
The elaborate diacritics of Czech are present and correct in
the booklet and the song texts, though the Naxos website itself
remains a resolutely diacritic-free zone. There are some genuine
mistakes in the song text file that should have been noticed
by Naxos, however; not so much the odd typo, such as 'kioness'
for 'lioness', but for example, in the third Goethe song, the
adjective "holde" has been left untranslated, giving the rather
dubious rendition: "Stay with me, holder stranger, sweet love".
Likewise, the phrase "lebt der Himmel" ('lives the sky', i.e.
'the sky lives') has clearly been machine-translated to give
"lives of the heavens", the German "der" having been nonsensically
interpreted as a genitive plural form when it is obviously a
masculine singular nominative. The second Goethe song has been
wilfully mistranslated in order to make it rhyme in English
- alders become willows, "murmuring streams" and "woodland and
grove" appear from nowhere, a simple "dream" becomes a "midsummer
night's dream".
Finally, there is a minor problem with the track numbering.
The first 29 songs on the CD are listed correctly, as are those
from 38 to the end. But what the back cover and song text file
label as track 30, 'Song of November the First', is actually
track 37 on the CD, so the CD is out of synch with the documentation
for eight songs, with CD track 30 listed as track 31, CD track
31 listed as track 32 and so on. Sound quality is reasonably
good.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Track listing
6 Prostých Písní [Simple Songs], H.110
3 Ukolébavky [Lullabies], H.146bis
2 Písničky v Národním Slohu [2 Songs
in the National Style], H.14
2 Písně na Ruskou Poezii [Songs on Russian Poetry],
H. 135bis
3 Goethe-Lieder, H.94
Komárova Svadba [The Gnat's Wedding], H.75
3 Dětské Písničky [Children's Songs],
H.146
Mrtvá Láska [Dead Love], H.44
České Hádanky [Czech Riddles], H.277bis
2 Písně [Songs], H.31
Kráčím, Kráčím mezi Vrchy
(Walk, I Walk Among the Hills), H.74bis
Jak Milý Čas [How Dear the Hour], H.106
štěstí to Dost [Blissfulness Enough], H.81
Slzy (Vilmě) [Tears (Vilma)], H.41
Náladová Kresba [Mood Drawing], H.29
Píseň Prvního Listopadu [Song of November
the First], H.72
Dívči Sny [A Girl's Dreams], H.22
Až Budeme Staří [When We are Old], H.10
Než se Naděješ [Before You Know it], H.6
Noc Každou tebe Drahá Zřím [Every Night
in Dreams I See You], H.57
3 Písně na Francouzské Texty: no.3: La Nuit
[Songs on French Texts: Night], H.88 no.3
Konec Všemu [The End of Everything], H.43
V Noci [At Night], H.30
Stará Píseň [Old Song], H.74
Píseň na Starošpanělský Text [Song
on an Old Spanish Text], H.87
Píseň o Hubičkách [A Song about Kissing],
H.27bis
Vím Hajíček Pěkný Zelený
[I Know a Nice Green Grove], H.273
Jana Wallingerová (mezzo) 
