The Frescoes and The Parables
Bohuslav Martinů:
THE FRESCOES OF PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA, H 352
THE PARABLES, H 367
The Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition II/2/7
Edited by Janina Müller and Arne Stollberg
BA 10582-01, cloth bond score (25,5 x 32,5 cm)
· First ever scholarly-critical edition
· Detailed preface and critical commentary by the editor (Eng/Cz)
· Facsimiles section presenting important sources
The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, H 352, and The Parables, H 367, represent the culmination of the late Neo-Impressionist orchestral output of Bohuslav Martinů, marked by a fantastic, kaleidoscopic style. Martinů transforms his extramusical (visual, literary) inspirations into the principles of musical forms, which are open to associations from mood setting to philosophical inquiries into the essence of human existence.
The composer wrote The Frescoes in spring 1955 and conceived them after the cycle of Renaissance frescoes of Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi in Arezzo, Italy. The premiere at the Salzburg Festival on 26 August 1956 was given by the Vienna Philharmonic under Rafael Kubelík, to whom the composition is dedicated.
Martinů wrote the first two movements of The Parables in July 1957; he returned to the work after a break in early 1958 (completing the final, third movement on 8 February). The Parables were premiered in Boston on 13 February 1959 by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The mottos of the first two movements of The Parables reference The Wisdom of the Sands (Citadelle) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. For the third movement, Martinů created a motto from loosely associated excerpts from Georges Neveux’s play The Voyage of Theseus, which later provided the subject matter for the opera Ariadne, H 370 (1958). Although the music of The Parables relates to the mottos only abstractly or, in the case of the third movement, perhaps somewhat accidentally, these texts are nevertheless an integral part of The Parables.
This volume of the complete edition is based on a thorough assessment of all of the composer’s autographs and their copies, as well as Martinů’s extensive correspondence, which is the source of numerous new findings regarding the genesis of both compositions. The editors include this information in the Foreword, which also examines the mottos of The Parables in the context of the composer’s late works.