Musical Reminiscences: The 80th Anniversary or Bohuslav Martinu's Arrival in New York

MUSIC
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2021
7:00 PM

Mannes Sounds Festival
Bohemian National Hall
321 East 73rd Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan

Free (by registration)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/musical-reminiscences-the-80th-anniversary-of-bohuslav-martinu-in-new-york-tickets-166846106195

Why isn't Martinu more popular? At its best, his Bohemian Neoclassical music is delightful. One problem is that he was too prolific for his own good: there's a lot of chaff to separate out from the wheat. But the real problem is the usual one: the mainstream classical audience doesn't want to hear anything it hasn't already heard millions of time before. So too bad for them if they miss this delightful chamber music recital, focusing on works Martinu wrote after he arrived in the United States (for the usual reasons Europeans arrived here in the 1940s).

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I've made fun of the Bohemian Spirit Restaurant in the Bohemian National Hall for having a sideline in tamales. Then I remembered about Czech/Texan kolaches. I'm not laughing any more.