BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conducted by Rafael Kubelik
Part 1
Though Martinu, the most important modern Czech composer, has spent the greater part of his life outside his native country-chietly in France and America-he has constantly pursued his ideal of a national Czech music. His fourth symphony, laid out on the scale of the symphonic form as it was left by the later romantic composers, was completed in Massachusetts last year. Its style is individual, continuing, nevertheless, the tradition of the earlier Czech composers, Smetana. Suk, and Janacek