Martinu: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5; Concertino

Martinu was an immensely prolific and varied composer with an impressive list of orchestral compositions including six symphonies and five piano concertos. The three works for piano and orchestra on this recording span twenty years of the Czech composer’s peripatetic career, from the Concertino (Paris, 1938) to the Third Piano Concerto (New York, 1948) and the Fifth Piano Concerto (Schonenberg, Pratteln, Switzerland 1958). As with his complete solo piano music, also available on Naxos, Martinu’s immediately recognisable style here combines shimmering virtuosity and impressionistic effects, motoric rhythms and pristine harmonies.