Bohuslav Martinu emigrated from Vichy France to the U.S. in 1941 and despite various problems, including those caused by falling off a roof, established a flourishing career there. He composed the short opera What Men Live By in 1952, apparently intending it for television or radio broadcast, but outside of a performance at the Interlochen Academy in Michigan and a few other collegiate productions accompanied by a piano, nothing came of it. The work was revived in 2014 by the late Czech conductor Jirí Belohlávek and the ...
Read More
Bohuslav Martinu emigrated from Vichy France to the U.S. in 1941 and despite various problems, including those caused by falling off a roof, established a flourishing career there. He composed the short opera What Men Live By in 1952, apparently intending it for television or radio broadcast, but outside of a performance at the Interlochen Academy in Michigan and a few other collegiate productions accompanied by a piano, nothing came of it. The work was revived in 2014 by the late Czech conductor Jirí Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; that concert is presented here, with a live performance from a different date of the composer's Symphony No. 1 (not an especially relevant choice) to bring down the curtain. The English text is by Martinu himself, and an all-Czech group of soloists and the Czech Martinu Voices produce a remarkably idiomatic reading. It is based on a story by Tolstoy about a cobbler who knows people by their shoes and hears an annunciation of a visit from Jesus -- which he...
Read Less