These generally fine performances make a welcome addition to Naxos’ ongoing Martinu symphony cycle. I hope that it’s no longer necessary to make a case for these six luminous, elegant, humane works. They stand among the greatest examples of their form, on a par with the cycles of Nielsen, Sibelius, Shostakovich, Piston, Roussel, or any other of the 20th century’s most important symphonic creations. The predominantly pastoral Second Symphony reflects the composer’s desire to present “ordered thoughts, calmly expressed.” Its opening movement practically defines the word “lucid”. The Fourth begins cheerfully enough, but the mood darkens as the movements progress from vigorous scherzo through anguished Largo, with victory snatched from the jaws of defeat in an intensely dramatic finale whose Coplandesque ending seems to foreshadow Elmer Bernstein’s title theme from The Magnificent Seven. Meant solely as a compliment, the music is cinematic in the best sense: colorful, atmospheric, and instantly expressive.
Arthur Fagen’s players don’t demonstrate quite the same level of comfort with Martinu’s perpetually syncopated rhythms that Czech orchestras do, but neither do they fake it the way Järvi’s Bamberg band does on BIS. Similarly, Naxos’ sonics don’t have the depth and dynamic range of Thomson’s Chandos recordings, but they do capture plenty of attractive detail, for which much of the credit must go to the conductor. Fagen certainly knows where Martinu’s melodies lie, even in the most densely composed passages. He finds, for example, an extra thematic continuity in the muted brass behind the chattering winds in the second subject of the Fourth Symphony’s first movement, and he balances some of Martinu’s more interesting instrumental juxtapositions (such as the harp-flecked principal tunes in the Second Symphony’s opening movement) with an unerring ear. So while I wouldn’t recommend these performances in preference to Neumann’s on Supraphon, or Thomson’s, they certainly hold their own and at Naxos’ price can claim a distinguished place in any Martinu collection.
