Three distinctive features of Bohuslav Martinů’s music stand out in this concert: neoclassical intimacy, jazz-inspired sounds and Bohemian cultural identity. In reverse order, the Solistas da Metropolitana perform Les Rondes, a work premiered in Paris, but which would have been quite different had the composer not lived near Moravia during the first half of his life; the title alludes to the circle dances of this eastern region of the Czech Republic. In between, La Revue de Cuisine, a suite from a modernist ballet premiered in Prague, though it would have been different had Martinů not lived in France for seventeen years, until the arrival of German troops; these four pieces incorporate the new sounds arriving from the Americas in the 1920s. The programme opens with a Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Cello and Piano, which premiered in New York, but which would have been different had Martinů not been a devotee of Viennese classicism; composed in 1947, whilst he was in exile, it displays a lightness of touch and a formal simplicity that seem to pay homage to Mozart.
Martinů
Solistas da Metropolitana
B. Martinů Quartet with Oboe
B. Martinů La Revue de Cuisine
B. Martinů Les Rondes
Carla Pereira, oboe
Jorge Camacho, clarinet
Rafaela Oliveira, bassoon
João Moreira, trumpet
Tolga Kulak, Ricardo Vieira, violins
Ana Cláudia Serrão, cello
Savka Konjikusic, piano
Purchasing a ticket for the performance includes a complimentary museum ticket, available for collection at the museum box office
