# Fantastic discoveries - Martinů



## Vinyl (Jan 22, 2014)

My basic knowledge of "classical" music can be attributed to two things: as a kid listening to the radio with my dad on Sunday mornings before my mom woke up, and a frenzied period of discovery that lasted a few years around the end of the nineties and early 2000s. 
The former was a pleasant ritual, and if nothing else gave me a tolerance for the sort of sounds you might associate with the term. The latter was much more of an active exploration, but I pretty much had to do it on my own, and although I built a pretty good foundation, and had a whole bunch of awesome music experiences, both at home and in concert halls, there was still so much left to learn. And then it got put on the slow burner for a decade or so. Somehow the pieces that used to give me goose bumps didn't anymore. I never stopped completely, but from a full blown obsession it faded to a more peripheral interest.

So, hey, wasn't this supposed to be mostly for myself? Don't I already know this?

Yeah, well, what I *didn't* know was the music of Bohuslav Martinů.

I have been eyeing the four or five Martinů titles over there between Mahler and Mendelssohn somewhere for a while, not knowing the first thing, really, but then his name came ip on the liner notes to a Josef Suk album I was listening to, and I thought wa-hey, now's the time. His name keeps popping up, and often next to names I have knowledge of.

My first Martinů experience, then:

*Toccata e due Canzoni*, and 
*Sinfonietta La Jolla*.

The 1974 Supraphon recording with Prague Chamber Orchestra sounds great, and Zdeněk Hnát plays with confidence and playful virtuosity. 
I'm writing this as the Sinfonietta is playing, and although my points go to side A, the Toccata e due canzoni, this is really awesome music. I have a lot of time for all the various ways people were struggling to find somewhere to go with their music in the first half of the 1900s. I really enjoy the feeling of fumbling along that many composers give me, of not leaving the safety of late romantic stuff but still exploring (or something)...

Before I say too many stupid things I might regret seeing in writing, I'll just say that today has been a good day for discovering new music, and that I will never overlook Martinů again.

I end this post as the first notes of the *Istar* ballet suites fill the room. Wish me luck.

edit: Istar doesn't come near Toccata. Dissapoint.


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