Martinu: Concertino for Cello, Winds, Percussion & Piano in C minor, H. 143

A Czech conductor who excelled worldwide. Martin Turnovsky recordings for the first time on CD.

Paradoxically, a greater opportunity to witness the artistry of the remarkable Czech conductor Martin Turnovsky, whose teachers included Karel Ančerl and George Szell, has been afforded to audiences abroad.

After winning the international conducting competition in Besancon (1958), he had to wait almost a decade for the real launch of his international career, since the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia prevented him from travelling around the world.

He was chief conductor of the Dresdner Staatskapelle and Staatsoper, and, after emigrating to the West at the end of the 1960s, led the Operas in Oslo and Bonn, guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and other major orchestras. Only after the regime change in Czechoslovakia in 1989 could he renew his work with orchestras on home soil. In the 1960s he made numerous recordings for Supraphon. The majority of those presented on these discs are now available on CD for the first time. They bear witness to Turnovsky’s distinct talent, which several years later would dazzle to the full in front of the world’s most renowned orchestras.

Cello Concertos Nos 1 and 2 are fully characteristic of Martinu and exemplary of the influence that France, in particular, had on his composition. They contain some of his best music and are here complemented by an early Cello Concertino.

This popular recording by Raphael Wallfisch and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Jirí Belohlávek is now available on the Chandos Classics label. The repertoire is rarely recorded and the disc will prove attractive on the market, at a highly competitive price.

‘All in all, a most attractive recording, which can easily serve as the sole representative of this music in anyone’s collection.’ Fanfare

‘Whatever else may be on your “must” list of classical CDs to buy, move it all down a notch and put this one on top. The two full-scale Martinu concertos on this disc can stand honourably with the few cello concertos ever programmed. Wallfisch brings a compelling mix of technical first and expressive insight… Not enough can be said for Chandos’ vibrant recording which puts real life-blood in the cello sound.’ ‘Disc of the Month’, CD Review

Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten writes: “Theis and his Chamber Symphony Orchestra show strong engagement for these exquisite works. Highly appreciated is the symphonic full sound.”