Bohuslav Martinů, one of the great 20th-century composers, will be the focus of the 35th Bard Music Festival, which gets underway at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, on Friday. Subtitled Martinů and His World, it’s the first time this renowned festival has been dedicated to the Czech composer’s life and music. The program will showcase Martinů’s wide-ranging work, from chamber pieces and orchestral scores to two operas, including a world premiere. I spoke with Aleš Březina, director of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute and co-curator of the festival, about the vision behind the event.
This is the first time the prestigious American Bard Music Festival will be dedicated to the work and life of Bohuslav Martinů. What made now the right moment for it and what story are you trying to tell through the programming?
“Well, the reason why Martinů at all is the Bard College president Leon Botstein’s love for Martinů’s music and for Czech music in general. He already did two festivals dedicated to other Czech composers, Dvořák and then Janáček.
“The reason why now — maybe one of them was that it wasn’t possible earlier because of these two festivals dedicated to Dvořák and Janáček, so as not to turn it into a Czech music festival at Bard College of Music.
“I would say it’s the right moment, for someone who came to the United States as an immigrant, to speak about immigration politics and about what Europeans gave to the United States.”
“Another reason is that last year the subject of the festival was Hector Berlioz, a French composer. Martinů lived in France for 17 years. In his Sixth Symphony, he quotes from Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. So there are links between Martinů and Berlioz.
“I think it came step by step. And right now I would say it’s the right moment — for someone who came to the United States as an immigrant — to speak about immigration politics and about what Europeans gave to the United States.
“And so maybe it’s the ideal time.”
How did you go about selecting the specific pieces for the program? How complicated was this process?
“I wouldn’t say it was complicated at all. At first, we created something like a huge collection of major pieces by Martinů. Then we started to think about how to put them into 11 concerts. It’s going to be long concerts, but just 11.
“Then we selected 33 works by Martinů from all genres, starting with songs, song cycles, cantatas, instrumental concertos, chamber music, up to ballets and operas by Martinů.
“And it was a very beautiful discussion with the programming team of the Bard Music Festival, especially with Leon Botstein and with Christopher Gibbs, but also Byron Adams, and with my distinguished colleague Michael Beckerman, who is responsible, together with me, for the book Martinů and His World, which will come out right before the festival.
I want to talk about this book in greater detail, but first of all, is it true that one of Martinů’s operas will be performed in a world premiere at the festival?
“That’s right. It’s Mariken de Nimègue. It’s the first version of an opera which, in its second version, is part of Martinů’s tetralogy The Plays of Mary.
“We discovered this unknown, never-performed version a couple of decades ago. It’s now one of the latest volumes of the Martinů Complete Edition. It was edited by my colleague Pavel Žůrek for Bärenreiter Publishing.
“And I offered the world premiere performance to the Bard Music Festival because I thought such a major festival needs something very special, which no one has heard ever.
“So it’s not exactly the same music as the second version. It’s a different libretto — a French libretto by Henri Ghéon. And it’s different not only in the music, but also in musical style. So I look very much forward to hearing it for the first time.”
As you said, you will also unveil a new book that you co-edited together with Michael Beckerman called Martinů and His World. What fresh insights about Martinů does it offer?
“I would say it’s the first book in English for American audiences. There were biographies by Brian Large in England a couple of decades ago, or the English translation of Miloš Šafránek’s biography on Martinů. But this one was written especially for American audiences.
“We also invited some major European and American scholars to participate in it. What will also be new is that we have edited some of the interviews I made back in 2000 with major American composers and musicians of the 20th century, such as David Diamond, Michael Steinberg and Charles Rosen, who was famous both as a pianist and as a musicologist. And they were all students or long-time friends of Martinů.
“We have, with Michael Beckerman, edited these interviews and added a lot of context to them. So this will be, I would say, a new insight into Martinů’s private world from the point of view of his close friends and contemporaries.
“I would say it’s a book that will introduce the many sides of Martinů, as a composer who was a wonderful thinker and a very wise man.”
“Then Michael Beckerman also edited a notebook by Martinů. So for the first time, people will be able to read the thoughts Martinů wrote for himself in private. It includes excerpts from his readings. It includes remarks he wrote for his students.
“It includes some of his private thoughts. So it’s an extremely deep insight into Martinů’s thinking in the 1940s, with a lot of additional footnotes and context.
“I would say it’s a book that will introduce the many sides of Martinů, and show that Martinů is not a monolith, but a composer who was a wonderful thinker and a very wise man.”
And talking about American audiences, how has Martinů been received in the United States over the years? And has that changed in any way?
“It changed a lot. Martinů started to be performed in the United States in 1928, when Serge Koussevitzky conducted La Bagarre with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Then his chamber music was well known in the 1930s in the United States.
“After his arrival in the United States in March 1941, he started to compose directly for American performers and orchestras. And he became probably the most performed living composer in the United States at that time.
“That changed after he died in 1959. As always, every time when a composer dies, the interest in his work declines a little bit. And then, for a couple of decades, there was something like random knowledge of Martinů. And right now, it’s getting better and better.
“I would say this festival could mark a major push in promoting Martinů’s music in the United States.”
And if I’m not mistaken, the festival will not be exclusively about Martinů. It will profile other Czech musicians. Is that right?
“That’s right. Not only Czech composers, but also composers who created the context of Martinů’s time, which means also French composers and American composers.
“From the French ones, I would mention, for example, Maurice Ravel, who was a major inspiration for Martinů. From the American ones, I would mention David Diamond and Aaron Copland, who was a friend of Martinů, up to Frank Zappa, because Frank Zappa has a strong link with Czechoslovakia, with the Czech Republic.
“And I’ve included also some living composers, such as my dear friend Iva Bittová, who happens to live close to Bard College of Music and her son studied at Bard College of Music. So it was a wonderful opportunity to show what Czech performers are doing right now, as well as some other composers, such as Jaroslav Ježek, Erwin Schulhoff, and Karel Husa, who happened to know Martinů and spent most of their lives in the United States.
“So it’s not only about Martinů. What we wanted to avoid was a Martinů overkill. And we wanted to show him in the context of his contemporaries, predecessors, etc., because I think it’s more interesting for people to hear Martinů’s music in context.”
Who is the festival for? Who are your target audiences?
“I would say the general concertgoers. It’s not for specialists in 20th-century music, because Martinů was not such an exclusive composer who would compose just for a few very educated people.
“So it’s for music lovers. It’s for people who want to discover something new. It’s for people who already knew Martinů, but not that well, because, as I mentioned, we will hear 33 works by Martinů within these 11 concerts. So it will give a fantastic overview of his output, of his cantatas, chamber cantatas, cantatas with large orchestra, of his operas.
“There will be three operas performed at the Bard Music Festival: besides Mariken de Nimègue, also Ariane, the aria of Ariane, and the full production of Juliette, ou la clé des songes — Juliette, or The Key to Dreams, etc. So I think it’s for everyone who is interested in beautiful 20th-century music.
“And luckily, all the concerts will be streamed, so even those who cannot make it to the United States can still follow the program.”
Finally, after all these years studying the work of Bohuslav Martinů, would you say there is still more to discover or to re-evaluate about his life and work?
“Definitely. I mean, if you do Egyptology, it’s even older than Martinů, and there is still a lot to discover. Martinů was not a pharaoh, but he lived in so many countries and in so many flats, and he composed so much music that it’s distributed all over the world.
“So we have to uncover his manuscripts. We have to find his letters. Right now, we have at the Martinů Institute a wonderful database of Martinů’s correspondence, including over eight and a half thousand letters by Martinů, or to Martinů, or on Martinů.
“So if people are interested in knowing more about Martinů, I cannot but suggest to follow http://www.martinu.cz.”
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