On 19 December 1941, Martinů wrote a letter to Serge Koussevitzky, expressing a wish to compose a symphony for the Boston Symphony Orchestra for their next season. In reply, early in 1942 Koussevitzky commissioned a work for large orchestra in memory of...

REPRINT SERIES The Fifth Symphony was composed from March to May 1946. Although Martinů initially spoke of dedicating it to the Red Cross, in the end the score was dedicated to the Czech Philharmonic, perhaps in anticipation of a return to his native...

The Symphony No. 6 ("Fantaisies symphoniques"), H. 343, by Bohuslav Martinů was begun in New York City in 1951, after a hiatus of four years since its predecessor, and was tentatively completed three years later on 23 April 1953. In Paris, in the months...

REPRINT SERIES Martinů composed his Third Symphony during a summer retreat in Ridgefield, Connecticut from 2 May to 14 June 1944. The composition was not the result of a commission, but rather was a spontaneous gesture, and is dedicated to Serge...

The concerto is quite traditional, both in terms of its fast-slow-fast structure and in terms of the composer's personal aesthetic; the style is instantly recognizable as Martinu's: broad, wistful melodies soar over percolating rhythms with the...

EDITION ZEZA REPRINT SERIES Bohuslav Martinů's Symphony No. 2, H. 295, was composed from May 29 to July 24, 1943 under a commission from the Czech community in Cleveland. Martinu's Second Symphony is also a work of Haydnesque proportions. It is not a...

One of Martinu's most unyielding and dissonant works. Even in its quieter moments there is a stern, implacable quality. "Its notes sang out the feelings and sufferings of all those of our people who, far away from their home, were gazing into the...