We
do not perhaps link Martinů with
artsong. This disc let’s us into the
‘secret’ that he wrote songs throughout
his compositional life. It’s
a lovely disc but one which would perhaps
have benefited from an even greater
variety of songs and piano solos.
The
slow dense almost suffocating oppression
of summer heat is heavy in Martinů's
1930s setting of Chan Yo Sun's Peach
Blossom. This is the first of his
Two Songs
and that pervasive languor is instantly
asserted by the piano line and faithfully
continued by Černa's close-hugging
singing. Automne Malade (Apollinaire)
is the second of the two songs. Its
mood is very much of a piece with Peach
Blossom. In neither case is there
a whiff of willow pattern Chinoiserie.
If anything these songs link with those
of Duparc and Chausson.
From Three Songs
we get Saltimbanques (Acrobats)
again to a poem by Apollinaire. This
represents a break from the honey-dripping
slowness of the first two songs. Similarly
fleet is the Vocalise-Etude whose
transitory fairy-flight dances carefree.
This is a nice addition to the vocalises
by Medtner, Rachmaninov and Villa-Lobos.
Then come the Two
Folk Ballads. The dark Erben-style
The Minstrels were wandering includes
sections of quasi-sprechgesang. A little
more subtle is the similarly grim fairytale
The Orphan with its chimingly
‘clean’ piano part.
The four Erben folk-songs
recall Canteloube in Ponies on the
Fallow Field without the airless
Auvergne heat. By contrast the quick-skip
syncopation of The Lost Slipper is
an accelerating delight. Religious
Song is sombre. The final Invitation
has the sense of holy pilgrimage
- rather like Warlock's Frostbound
Wood.
After ten songs come
various works two piano solos from the
orchestral ballet Špalíček
- superbly recorded by Mackerras on
Supraphon. In addition there are and
eight songs gathered under the title
Novy Špalíček.
These come over as guileless, rural
echoes of folk originals - a touch of
Canteloube again and of Skalkottas (the
Greek Dances). Only in the addressing
gesture of Prayer and in the
fleeting accompaniment of The High
Tower (reference
to Martinů's childhood in the church-tower?)
did I detect a distinctive flavour of
the Martinů of the 1940s.
The Three Christmas
Songs are represented by The
Chicken and The Little Cat.
These again sound folksy, disarming
and simple. In a similar jejune innocent
spirit comes Counting Song, The
Wild Dove, The Little Swallow
and Children's Riddle in
which cheeky, cheery, breathy writing
is complemented by Černa's voice
subtly tuned to catch the awkwardness
and candour of early childhood. .
Prani Mamince (A
Wish for a Mother) is an attractive
song not least because the contours
of the lyrical theme contain the germs
of his melodic writing in symphonies
2 and 4 lying more than five years in
the future at that time.
Lastly come two songs
from the big choral orchestral cycle
- The Miracles of Mary (recorded
by Supraphon). Christ's Nativity
is described as a pastorale and
its atmosphere of simple devotion seems
completely apposite. The last song is
Sister Pascolina on a subject
by Julius Zeyer who wrote the story
of Raduz and Mahulena on which
Josef Suk made a successful sequence
of incidental music.
The notes by Richard
Whitehouse are very supportive and add
greatly to the considerable and undemanding
pleasures of this disc. The picture
is completed by the fact that the sung
texts are printed in full with side-by-side
translations. For some reason, probably
contractual, the words for Le Petit
Chat could not be included. But
they can be found, we are told, at www.naxos.com/libretti/lepetitchat.htm
Quite apart from the
Martinů
legions this disc should find a ready
market with admirers of French song
and with those who take a special interest
in how concert music of the last century
took the imprint of folk influences.
Rob Barnett
Olga Černá (mezzo) 
