Over to Prague this week, by way of Madrid, for a broadcast concert featuring the venerable Czech Philharmonic, conducted by the equally venerable Jiri Belohlavek.

The program consists of music by Martinu, Novak, Ancerel (Karl Ancerel who was Music Director of the Czech Phil for many years) and Antonin Dvorak and is part of the 100 year anniversary celebration of the Czech Conservatory.

Here are the program notes from Radio Nacional Espana:

100 aniversario del Conservatorio de de Praga. Concierto celebrado en el Rudolfinum de Praga el 28 de abril de 2011. Grabación de la CR, República Checa.

(Top Player) MARTINU: Obertura (6‟18”).
K. ANCERL: Sinfonietta(19‟05”).
(Bottom Player) - NOVAK: Suite morava, Op. 32 (27‟51”).
DVORAK: La rueca dorada, Op. 109 (22‟02”). Orq. Fil. Checa. Dir.: J. Belohlavek.

Great concert, and the Czech Philharmonic certainly lives up to their reputation. Nice Anti Road-Rage Wednesday (Thursday) music.

Enjoy.

Even though the drive is more or less officially over, I know there are some who didn't get a chance to donate while we were in crisis mode. If you care to, that would be wonderful, as running Newstalgia is an every day effort. I'll leave the Donate button up until the end of the week so if you didn't get a chance before, now's your opportunity.

Back over to Madrid this week for a concert featuring the Chamber players of the RTVE Symphony in music of Bohuslav Martinu, Augustin Gonzalez Acilu and Max Reger. The group consists of Lavinia Olga Moraru, violin, Marina Moraru, violin, Sergio Saez, viola, Anton Gakkel, cello and Javier Martinez, clarinet. The concert was recorded live at Teatro Monumental de Madrid on February 5th of this year.

I admit I am completely unfamiliar with the music of Augustin Gonzalez Acilu - but I will also admit I was pleasantly surprised and it goes really nicely between the Martinu Trio #2 and the Reger Quintett.

As always, the concert is broken up into two parts - Part one (top player) has the Martinu and Acilu and Part two (bottom player) has the Reger.

Here are the notes:

Los conciertos de Radio Clásica Música de Cámara de la Orquesta y Coro de RTVE.
Transmisión directa desde el Teatro Monumental de Madrid.

Part 1:MARTINU: Trío de cuerda nº 2.
GONZÁLEZ ACILU:Cuarteto nº 1 “Sucesiones superpuestas”.
Part 2: REGER: Quinteto para clarinete y cuerda en La mayor, Op. 146.

M. Moraru (vl.), L. Olga Moraru (vl.), S. Sáez (vla.), A. Gakkel
(vc.), J. Martínez (cl.).

Announcements are in Spanish but are cut down due to time constraints.

Enjoy - it's Anti-Road Rage Wendesday, in case you haven't noticed.

Over to Prague this week for a concert (as well as a studio performance) by the Czech Radio Symphony. The program is pretty varied, with works by Ctirad Kohoutek, Bohuslav Martinu and Vatisla Novak.

With the strange Google translation of the Czech Radio page, the english translation of the Kohoutek piece is Monolith but it's Czech name is Pocta Zivotu. Either way, I'm completely unfamiliar with it. I am familiar with the other piece, the Martinu Concerto for Flute, Violin and Orchestra and the Symphony Number 3. Conductors of the pieces are, Ondrej Kukai for the Kohoutek, Jan Kucera for the Martinu Concerto (with Martin Valek and Jiri Valek soloists), Peter Vronsky for the Novak and Vladimir Valek for the Martinu Symphony.

A really nice concert and especially nice if you're a Martinu fan.

The concert is split up into two parts - the first part (top player) is the Kohoutek and Martinu Concerto and the second part (bottom player) is the Novak Serenade and Martinu Symphony Number 3.

Here are the Google English and original Czech notes:

Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra. Symphony Orchestra for the monolith (16 min). Conductor: Ondrej Kukal. - Bohuslav Martinu: Concerto for Flute, Violin and Orchestra (19 min). Soloists and George Martin Valek Valek. Conducted by Jan Kucera. - Vitezslav Novák: Serenade for Small Orchestra in D major, Op. 36 (24 min). Conducted by Peter Vronsky. - Bohuslav Martinu: Symphony No. 3 (29 min). Conducted by Vladimir Valek. (90 min)

Ctirad Kohoutek: Pocta životu. Symfonický monolit pro orchestr (16 min). Řídí Ondřej Kukal. - Bohuslav Martinů: Koncert pro flétnu, housle a orchestr (19 min). Sólisté Martin Válek a Jiří Válek. Řídí Jan Kučera. - Vítězslav Novák: Serenáda pro malý orchestr D dur op. 36 (24 min). Řídí Petr Vronský. - Bohuslav Martinů: Symfonie č. 3 (29 min). Řídí Vladimír Válek. (90 min)

Announcements are in Czech and for some reason, the concert is in Mono. But . . it's worth it.

(Bohuslav Martinu - The face of modern Czech Composers post-World War 2)

I have always been a fan of the music of Bohuslav Martinu, ever since first hearing this recording as a kid, compliments of my local Salvation Army Thrift Shop. The 1950s signified the end of an era for the 78 rpm record, that heavy chunk of shellac that went amazingly fast around your turntable (or record player as everyone called them) but always broke in a million pieces if you dropped it.

I remember this set very well. It was a book of 78's from the Czech Ultraphone label that contained this first recorded performance of a work inspired by and hastily scribbled down during Martinu's escape from invading Nazis and his eventual migrating and settling in the United States during World War 2.

The piece is dedicated to the French pianist Germaine Leroux and it's this first commercial recording of the work that features her in the role of piano solo in a recording made in 1947. Also featured is The Czech Philharmonic lead by Jaroslav Khrombolc.

The future of Czech music had every right to look promising. Martinu was one of its brightest lights. And he is still being discovered today by countless new listeners. Perhaps this might be a discovery for you.

(Bohuslav Martinu - put Czech music into the 20th century)

I've always been a big fan of the music of Bohuslav Martinu, ever since my teenage years when Manny Aron (of Aron's Records in L.A.) turned me on to an lp of his Sinfonietta Giocosa (coming up in the next few weeks). Although in the 60s Martinu was still largely obscure in the U.S., his reputation has grown steadily to the point where he is now pretty much acknowledged as one of the real beacons of 20th century Czech music.

So I thought today I'd post one of his earlier works, his String Quartet Number 2, composed in 1925. This recording, an Ultraphon set of 78s recorded in 1947 (or 1948, I don't have the exact date) is, I think the first recording made of this work. It features the String Quartet of The National Theatre of Prague. I am pretty certain this hasn't seen the light of reissue anywhere, but there are several more recent recordings if you want something without the age factor attached.

Some people just aren't crazy about 78s.