Fenwick Smith, Sally Pinkas, John Ferrillo, Thomas Martin - Bohuslav Martinu: Chamber Music with Flute (2010)

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Fenwick Smith, Sally Pinkas, John Ferrillo, Thomas Martin - Bohuslav Martinu: Chamber Music with Flute (2010)

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This Naxos release of just a few of the chamber works by Bohuslav Martinu includes all the larger works involving the flute and piano, and despite any weightiness that statement implies, and despite the formal titles and structures of these works, there is more whimsy in these than the unsuspecting listener might expect. Martinu is considered a Czech composer, although he spent much of his career abroad, and like other Czech composers, he frequently uses elements of folk music. However, his music seems to have been equally influenced by French modern music. The results of the combination of those things, in this chamber music, are animated energy, clean lines, and tinges of Impressionistic colorings or jazz harmonies, all of which can be recognized in these performances featuring flutist Fenwick Smith, pianist Sally Pinkas, and their Boston-based colleagues. The liveliness of Martinu's writing comes primarily from his use of brief rhythmic patterns, based on Czech folk dances or sounds of nature – as in the last movement of the Flute Sonata – or jazz. Those short patterns are repeatedly used and are skillfully developed. The Sextet has the most elements borrowed from the jazz world, especially in the Divertimento movements. The second one, entitled Blues, is not what Americans would think of as blues, just as the Blues movement Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2 isn't. The Sextet's theme is played by the bassoon to sound like saxophone, but it's as much Eastern European lament as it is jazz. In other places, the French aspects are clearest. The Adagio of the Trio for flute, cello, and piano, is very reminiscent of Ravel's adagios. Another key to the energy of the music, is contrast: between lyrical and spirited passages; between the timbres of the instruments. Smith, Pinkas, and the other musicians here are all used to playing in ensembles so that they know the significance of being able to work together yet give one part more of the spotlight when necessary, and to bring out the diverse elements and influences in Martinu's music yet make each movement and work a cohesive whole. Most importantly of all, they sound as if they are enjoying it all themselves.

Review by Patsy Morita, Allmusic.com

It’s rather unusual, and therefore welcome, to find a disc devoted so squarely to Martin?’s chamber works involving the flute Normally one finds that companies prefer a more across the board approach, mixing the flute works with, say, the Madrigal sonatas or with La Revue de Cuisine or with the Nonet. Or one finds a presentation of the Czech composer’s works in the context of near contemporaries, such as Poulenc and Prokofiev, in an exploration specifically of the powerfully attractive Flute Sonata. So, it’s pleasing to find a disc such as this, which has the confidence to focus closely.

The Sonata for flute, violin and piano H.254 was written in 1936 and dedicated to the wife of Marcel Moÿse, whose husband, Marcel, gave the premiere in a ‘family affair’ performance with Louis Moÿse and Blanche Moÿse Honegger. Interestingly a 1938 performance by this august trio has survived and was issued on a Martin? Society promotional CD in 2005. The present Naxos performance is good but sounds somewhat ‘sewing machine’ in places, especially in comparison with the more specialised Gallic charm of the older trio’s performance. The slow movement, though, has tenderness and a real sense of affection and it seems pedantic, given the finesse of the playing, to note that the Moÿse performance had a more aloofly yielding introspection in this movement. Where I do feel a decided superiority in the older performance is in the finale, where the Naxos trio make rather too much of a contrast when moving into the B section; it sounds much better when, as with the Moÿse, you slide into it without too much fuss.

Probably the best known of the quartet in this selection is the Flute Sonata. Fenwick Smith and Sally Pinkas are assured guides but take a decidedly less incisive approach than, say, Jean-Pierre Rampal and John Steele Ritter [SK53106, in a very mixed mainly vocal recital by Kathleen Battle]. I prefer Ritter’s more arresting pianism and the greater sense of characterisation generated by the Rampal-Ritter duo generally. Perhaps the Naxos duo honour the finale’s Allegro poco moderato injunction just a touch better in the slightly steadier tempo they adopt - but Rampal does shape the birdsong more inventively in any case.

The Sextet for piano and winds is the earliest work here, dating from 1929. It’s cast in five brief movements, and utilises baroque punctuation adeptly. There’s a beautiful Adagio, and a Blues in which the bassoon imitates a night club saxophone; then a vivacious finale. This Sextet reminds us of La Revue de Cuisine, especially in its use of the vampy and Stride-patterned piano contributions and the infectious liveliness of the writing. The Trio for flute, cello and piano H.300 (1944) is an attractive work, and sports one truly memorable idea - the flute recitative over accompanying cello pizzicato figures. It’s a fluid and leisurely piece, in all respects, not from the top drawer but marked by consummate craftsmanship.

Well recorded over a period of years in two locations, these performances have been artfully brought together. None is a front-ranker, quite, but all are highly personable.

Review by Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

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Fenwick Smith, Sally Pinkas, John Ferrillo, Thomas Martin - Bohuslav Martinu: Chamber Music with Flute (2010)

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Fenwick Smith, Sally Pinkas, John Ferrillo, Thomas Martin - Bohuslav Martinu: Chamber Music with Flute (2010)

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