BOHUSLAV MARTINU            1890-1959

Nonet (1959)

1. Poco Allegro
2. Andante
3. Allegretto
   

In 1959, a hundred years after the demise of Spohr and only a few months before his own death from the terminal cancer from which he was already suffering, Martinu composed his own Nonet for the same combination of instruments as favoured by Spohr.

Martinu had not lived in his native Czechoslovakia since 1923 and throughout the long years of voluntary exile, first in Paris and then in America, the spirit of his homeland remained a powerful force in his creative personality.  When he eventually came back to Europe in 1953, return to the repressive communist regime of Czechoslovakia was not an option, and he spent his remaining years in Italy and Switzerland.

The work is dedicated to the Czech Nonet, who gave the first performance at the Salzburg Festival on 27th July 1959, and combines nostalgia for Martinu's native homeland with a tribute to the classical style of Haydn, which had become an increasing interest of Martinu's during his years in America.

All three movements are redolent of the kind of music played by country musicians in Bohemia and Moravia, but the first especially, with its crisp Haydnesque themes, clarity of texture and clever use of counterpoint, reveals the composer's selective and highly individual response to the past.  It holds together perfectly in its serene affirmation of life, with no hint of the shadow of death under which it was composed.