The Bohuslav Martinů Foundation awarded the Smetana Trio and the town of Polička with medals
The commemorative medal of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation was received by the management of the town of Poličky for the permanent promotion of the works of the famous native and for the care given to the composer’s local landmarks. The award was also won by Smetana’s trio, which made a significant contribution to the performance of Martinů’s chamber compositions, both on concert tours in our country and abroad, as well as in internationally awarded recordings.
(Martinů medal, photo: city of Polička)
B. Martinů Foundation aims to support the composer’s legacy and the presentation of his work. For more than a quarter of a century, he has been honoring distinguished personalities with commemorative medals, whose main fate was with Martinů and whose music was significantly connected and which spread through his name. The awardees include conductor Rafael Kubelík, pianist Rudolf Firkušný, harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková or musicologist Jaroslav Mihule, author of the composer’s biography. Last year, the sculptor Milan Knobloch, author of the composer’s tombstone and the monument with a larger-than-life statue in Polička, was awarded.
Just the city of Polička is one of this year’s awardees. The foundation awards him the medal for consistent promotion of the composer’s work and high level of creative cooperation. The city supports the operation Center B. Martinů, which manages a significant part of the composer’s material estate and brings visitors closer to his life, for example, with an installation in his birth room in the tower of the church of St. Jakub. The medal was presented by a member of the board of directors, prof. Jiří Hlaváč and the director of the Foundation doc. Irvin Venys into the hands of the mayor Jaroslav Martinů. “Thank you for the award, which the Martinů Foundation gives very rarely. We look forward to further pleasant cooperation in the future.” a city representative to provide himself.
(Irvin Venyš, Jaroslav Martinů, Jiří Hlaváč, photo: city of Polička)
A commemorative medal was also awarded Smetana’s trio for excellent domestic and foreign presentation of Bohuslav Martinů’s work at public concerts and recordings. The leading Czech chamber ensemble has been dedicated to the interpretation of the work of the native of Polič for the entire period of its existence. Pianist Josef Páleníček, who founded the trio in 193, met Martinů in Paris at the end of 1944 and was a close personal friend of his for the rest of his life. The current cast of the ensemble consists of the pianist’s son, a cellist Jan Páleníčekpianist Jitka Čechová violinist Jan Talich. The members also dedicate themselves to interpreting Martinů’s compositions for their instruments. Čechová and Páleníček recorded together Sonatas for cello and piano or Variation on a Slovak folk song. As Smetana’s trio, they released a complete repertoire for this cast in 2016 on Supraphon. Back then with a violinist Jiří Vodička they recorded all three piano trios and the famous Bergerettes. The recording was a worldwide success, winning the prestigious BBC Music Magazine Chamber Award 2017, was Harmony’s tip and Sunday Times Record of the Week.
(Jitka Čechová, Jan Páleníček, Stanislava Střelcová, Irvin Venyš, photo: Zdenek Chrapek)
Jan Páleníček remembers his childhood and musical stories with the Polič native with respect and joy: “Bohuslav Martinů has accompanied me since my early childhood and I still enjoy his music today. As a small boy, I was regularly surrounded by his captivating music in the interpretation of my father Josef Páleníček, a great admirer and promoter of Martinů’s work, or during rehearsals of the Czech Trio, but also in collaboration with Saša Večtomov, with whom they regularly played and later recorded the entire Martinů chamber repertoire . This was fatal for me. Vechtomov’s colorful Martinů enchanted me so much that as a child I longed to follow in his footsteps. It was Saša Večtomov who bought me my first cello after my insistence, and after achieving the necessary erudition on the instrument, I enthusiastically set about studying Martinů’s work in all its forms. After many concert performances of Martinů’s works, both in the area of solo works and with Smetana’s trio, I decided, with a certain amount of shyness, to record on CD his sonatas and variations for cello and piano, but also the entire trio work, which was finally awarded a prize to our immense joy BBC Music Magazine Awards as the best chamber recording in 2017. To this day, we understand this award primarily as a tribute to the brilliant work of the composer, who did not allow himself to be seduced by all the innovative currents of the 20th century and spoke to the audience in a completely unique musical language, redolent of the Czech landscape and folklore, from which he himself once rose. We are grateful to him for that, and meeting his music is always a joy and a pleasure for us.”
Opening photo: Jitka Čechová and Jan Páleníček, photo: Zdenek Chrapek