VIOLIN VIRTUOSO JOSEF ŠPAČEK

Violin virtuoso Josef Špaček, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Petr Popelka reunite to perform the music of Bohuslav Martinů. Following their successful album featuring the Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (Supraphon 2023), they now present a new recording combining Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Igor Stravinsky's charming Divertimento suite, recorder in co-operation with pianist Miroslav Sekera. The album will be released on 17 October 2025 on CD and in digital formats.

Martinů had a deep relationship with the violin – not only as a composer, but also as a performer. It was the violin that brought him to Paris, where he spent seventeen years, and later to America. He wrote his first violin concerto for the famous Samuel Dushkin, Stravinsky's court violinist and arranger. Although it was never performed at the time, the work was rediscovered and premiered in 1973 by Josef Suk. The second concerto was commissioned by another violin legend, Mischa Elman, who performed it with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergei Koussevitzky.

The combination of Martinů and Stravinsky on one album is no coincidence – it is Dushkin who is the link between the two composers. Together with Igor Stravinsky, he created the concert suite Divertimento from the music for the ballet The Fairy's Kiss, which now complements the pair of Martinů concertos.

Josef Špaček says of his choice of repertoire: “When I was thinking about what to add to the album alongside Bohuslav Martinů’s two violin concertos, Samuel Dushkin proved to be the ideal link between Stravinsky and Martinů. Dushkin was Stravinsky's court violinist and arranger of his works, and it was thanks to this – perhaps with a certain foresight – that Martinů dedicated his first violin concerto to this renowned Parisian virtuoso. In it, Martinů draws obvious inspiration from Stravinsky, whether in rhythmic finesse or neoclassical elements. I dare say that Martinů himself would probably have been genuinely delighted with this combination on one album – together with Dushkin and Stravinsky. For me as a performer, this period is fascinating. Whenever I play Martinů, I perceive in his music a cosmopolitanism, but at the same time his deep Czech roots."

The album confirms that Bohuslav Martinů's work still offers new interpretative challenges and deep emotions. The combination of Špaček, Popelka, and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra proves once again that Czech music has a firm place in the world.