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This exceptional triple concerto was utterly lost and forgotten for 30 years when its posthumous premiere revealed it as a missing masterpiece by one of the most individual and important composers of the twentieth century. Its style is the spicy, polytonal modernism of Paris in the '20s and '30s, along with a full measure of neo-Baroque elements.

 It was acclaimed as one of Martinu's strongest works from the highly polyphonic, chamber orchestra-oriented years in the early '30s. The four-movement work lasts 25 minutes. The opening Poco Allegro is muscular with strong, propulsive bass lines. It only partly uses the concerto grosso form. By a good margin, the longest movement, the Andante, starts with a serious but richly harmonized solo that is succeeded by a lonely variant of it for the two string soloists. The third movement, Scherzo, Allegro, is a work in classic scherzo form with a trio middle section for the soloists alone and a literal repeat of the opening section. The movement is full of the feeling of the Classical-era Scherzo, but its sound is anything but. Shifting accents and other rhythmic tricks make it firmly twentieth century. The finale, Moderato, poco allegro, does begin a bit like a crib from one of the Brandenburg Concerto and there is more tendency to use the trio as a separate group. Canons and other contrapuntal devices abound, but still keep the tart harmonies of the polytonal era.