The Martinů complete edition is launched
Bärenreiter-Verlag has begun publishing the complete works of Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959). The edition is expected to comprise around one hundred volumes when it is completed.
Bohuslav Martinů, who spent the last years of his life in Switzerland and died in Liestal, was one of the most prolific and versatile composers of the 20th century. His broad oeuvre, encompassing many genres, includes around thirty operas and ballets, songs, choral works, cantatas, an oratorio, symphonies, numerous orchestral works for large and small ensembles, more than thirty solo concertos, around one hundred chamber music works in a variety of instrumentations and a series of works for solo instruments.
From Prague in the early 20th century, which was still strongly influenced by Austro-German late Romanticism, Martinů moved to Paris in 1923 and studied composition with Albert Roussel. With his symphonic Rondo Halftime (1924), he decidedly joined the neoclassical avant-garde of his time; the works from the second half of the 1920s are increasingly influenced by jazz. In the 1930s, Martinů enriched his compositions with lyrical elements, particularly from Czech and Moravian folk songs, and further developed his concertante style, which culminated in his double concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani (1938).
After the German troops invaded France, Martinů emigrated to America. The new environment enabled the composer to fully develop as a symphonist. The five symphonies written between 1942 and 1946 are impressive for their uninhibited melodic inventiveness, rhythmic freshness and well-formed concepts. In the 1950s, Martinů achieved an original synthesis of the various styles of his compositional development. Especially after his return to Europe in 1953, his works were increasingly influenced by Neo-Impressionism.
The Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition is a large-scale musicological project. Under the auspices of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute, the works in all versions and arrangements as well as newly discovered and previously unpublished compositions will be made available in scholarly-critical editions.
The first volumes:
Series VI/2/1: The Epic of Gilgamesh, H 351, edited by Aleš Březina, BA 10571, € 390.00, Bärenreiter, 2015
Series II/1/4: Symphony No. 4, H 305, edited by Sharon Andrea Choa, BA 10572, € 335.00, Bärenreiter 2015
