These two discs contain about half of Martinu’s voluminous output for the combination of violin and piano, including three major early works: the Concerto for Violin and Piano, and the sonatas in C major and D minor. It’s common for critics to talk about Martinu’s early music as being “derivative,” largely of French music of the early 1900s, but if this may be true from a formal point of view (Martinu never was an innovator in this area, preferring clear, simple musical structures all his life), it says nothing about his music’s content, which has a sweetness and dreamy nostalgia that could come from no one else. The early pieces are extremely attractive and assured, particularly given the fact that the repertoire isn’t exactly swimming in rewarding modern violin sonatas. They deserve to be heard in concert. The Impromptu, Sonata No. 1, and Five Short Pieces all date from the composer’s early maturity, and feature the striking rhythms and spiky harmonies typical of his first years in Paris. These works are exceptionally well performed, and the recording offers ideal balances: the violin clearly in front, but not so much so that the piano isn’t perfectly clear. A major chamber music release.
