Product description
Impromptu for violin and piano (Paris 1927) begins a new creative period in the life of Bohuslav Martinù. It consists of three short character pieces dotted with daring bitonal chords, balancing as a whole on the very edge of tonality. The author pitted the more or less diatonic violin part against the greatly dissonant piano. The piece is the first time Martinů appealed to beginning musicians, to whom he decided to give easier access to modern music. The current edition of Iša Popelka is based on the first edition of the work by Hudební matice Umělecké besedy (Prague, 1934), the Soviet edition (Moscow, 1968), and especially the composer’s manuscript housed in Polička.
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) was a Czech composer, violinist, pedagogue and music critic. His artistic development progressed from impressionism through neoclassicism, expressionism and jazz inspiration to a purely compositional style of his own. Stylistically, he is closest to the generation of neo-classicists such as Arthur Honegger, Béla Bartók and others.