 La belle idée d’enfin rassembler sur un disque les trois triptyques impressionnistes que Bohuslav Martinu composa entre 1955 et 1958 : il épurait son orchestre, l’éclairait de couleurs latines, lui donnait une fluidité onirique que Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca sacrèrent dès 1955. Un microsillon de Karel Ancerl les popularisa à l’Ouest, donnant un visage solaire et pourtant mystérieux à un compositeur jusque là un peu ignoré des mélomanes. Ecrire que Tomas Netopil égale Ancerl serait mentir, il manque à sa battue la fermeté des rythmes, le piquant des accents, au point que ses Fresques ne sont que couleurs et plus du tout dessins, une simplification d’autant plus inexplicable que les reste de l’album est de première importance, Ouverture néo baroque stylisée et vive, admirable lecture du rare Rocher, où Martinu célèbre dans une pompe tonitruante l’accostage des colons anglais aux rives de Plymouth comme l’a décrit William Bradford. Tomas Netopil et son orchestre magnifient les deux ultimes chefs d’œuvre symphoniques : le flamboiement des Paraboles est irrésistible, (et la beauté sensuelle du Jardin réussie comme jamais), les étrangetés des Estampes, composées pour Robert Withney et son Orchestre de Louisville dévoilant les nouveaux mondes sonores que Martinu explorait avant que la mort ne l’emporte. Disque fascinant, et indispensable même si vous devrez chercher les Fresques chez Ancerl ou Kubelik. (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) “And the sculptor fixes the likeness of a face in clay. And you walked by and passed before his work, and you glanced at the face and then walked on your way. And then it happened that you were not quite the same. Slightly changed, but changed.” The motto Bohuslav Martinu chose from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Citadelle for one of his Parables also poetically defines the transformational power of his final orchestral opuses. Following the six symphonies composed in the USA, he wrote them in Europe, much closer to his homeland. The orchestral triptych Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca was inspired by the work of the Italian Renaissance master. As Martinu himself put it: “The frescoes harbour a peculiar kind of solemn and rigid tranquillity, abounding in strange, serene and moving poetry; it is the darkened coloured atmosphere I strove to express in music.” The Parables is another piece in which Martinu reflected his philosophical ideas, with each of its three movements treating an allegory of life and human quest in the world. The symphonic prelude The Rock refers to the landing place of the English settlers who came to North America in 1619, as well as Martinu’s own fate as a homeless pilgrim. Martinu’s very last symphonic work, Estampes, comes across more as a fine drawing interwoven with silence than an impasto, as is the case of his previous orchestral pieces. These brilliant, extraordinary Martinu works are yet to gain the recognition they so richly deserve. The new Supraphon recording, made by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the renowned conductor Tomáš Netopil, affords hope that this will be set right. It would be a pity to miss out on such beauty.
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