Martinu: Trio / Nonet / La Revue De Cuisine

Featuring

Sinfonia Lahti Chamber Ensemble
Bohuslav Martinů

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Composition History

Martinů composed his Trio in F major for flute, cello, and piano in a single week in 1944 while experiencing a period of depression in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Martinů absorbed jazz, the music of Les Six (a group of young French composers), and Stravinsky's revolutionary ballets, developing his own principles while freely incorporating jazz-like progressions.

Composer Biography

Bohuslav Martinů, born in the Bohemian countryside, was not a successful conservatory student in Prague, preferring to educate himself by attending concerts and studying scores.

Performer Biography

The Sinfonia Lahti Chamber Ensemble, founded in 1986, aims to bridge the gap between official music life and musicians' ideals, and supports contemporary music by commissioning new works.

Composition History

Martinů composed the one-act ballet La revue de cuisine in Paris at Easter 1927, which was a great success when staged in Prague that November.

Historical Context

In 1953, Martinů returned to Europe, but the communist regime in Czechoslovakia regarded him as a deserter, making him unwelcome in his home country.

Compositional Technique

The plot of Martinů's ballet La revue de cuisine involves a wedding between a cooking-pot and a saucepan-lid, with a jealous whisk plotting against them.