Martinů came of age as a composer in the musical melting pot of Paris, where his Czech influences would absorb more international ones. This program examines the worlds that shaped him, contextualizing the composer among his teachers and peers. These include Jaroslav Řídký, with whom he had played in the Czech Philharmonic, and their teacher Josef Suk, whose youthful yet confident First Piano Quartet is dedicated to Suk’s own teacher (and soon-to-be father-in-law), Antonín Dvořák. Two of Martinů’s earliest Parisian works—the ragtimey Foxtrot and assured First Piano Trio—will be heard alongside chamber works by his teacher Albert Roussel, one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar years; the Polish émigré Alexandre Tansman, like Martinů a leading light of the so-called École de Paris; and their elder luminary Maurice Ravel, whose writing would influence the Czech composer’s string quartets.

Jaroslav Řídký

Events

Past events

Aug 9, 2025

Program Two • The French Connection · Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College

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