Martinů: Serenades

The extensive compositional legacy of Bohuslav Martinů (1890 - 1959) has now yielded material for this Supraphon edition of a complete set of his six serenades. As is implied by the very name of the genre (sereno, serene), this programme groups togethersmall-scale pieces in whose making the composer's emphasis was laid chiefly on the aspects of invention and instrumental elaborateness. Fortunately enough, both of the above qualities were represented abundantly in Martinů's talent. Therefore, notwithstanding the high degree of individuality characteristic for Martinů's idiom - a style which betrays the composer's identity right from the opening bars -, the collection of serenades presented here, featuring various instrumental combinations, generates an overall impression of combining great variety with formidable feeling for contrast, and a crisp freshness, a trait obviously relished by the performing musicians, as is made clear by their deliverance of every single note. Slogan: Musical symbiosis of ease, invention and refinement.