This wreath of carnations is a set of early songs by Bohuslav Martinu, written in all but two cases before he moved from Czechoslovakia to France in 1923. It's apparently the first in a multivolume set of Martinu songs by Czech mezzo soprano Jana Wallingerová, whose voice has a bit of grit in it. It's not necessarily wrong for the material, especially in the folkish repertory that makes up the majority of this album, but sample it to see if you like it. Many of these pieces are essentially youthful works, and only a few, ...
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This wreath of carnations is a set of early songs by Bohuslav Martinu, written in all but two cases before he moved from Czechoslovakia to France in 1923. It's apparently the first in a multivolume set of Martinu songs by Czech mezzo soprano Jana Wallingerová, whose voice has a bit of grit in it. It's not necessarily wrong for the material, especially in the folkish repertory that makes up the majority of this album, but sample it to see if you like it. Many of these pieces are essentially youthful works, and only a few, such as the Ceské hádanky, H. 277bis (Czech Riddles), track 22, have the astringently economical language of the mature Martinu. Most of the songs are very short, and many draw on Czech folk texts and folk-like poetry in other languages, mostly translated into Czech (there are a few in French and German) and set to simple, rhythmic melodies. There is even the novelty of hearing a Thomas Moore lyric in Czech and with a very Eastern European melody (track 26). Dvorák is the point of...
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