Frank Martin

The first recording by the Delta Piano Trio on Challenge Classics. The Trio have chosen works by Frank Martin, Tigran Mansurian and Antonin Dvorak which span almost a century, are from very different cultures, but which are all based on folk tunes.

The young Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra released three remarkable discs of Swiss modernist music in 2007. First came Othmar Schoeck's concerto and sonata for cello plus four song transcriptions for cello and piano. Then came Arthur Honegger's concerto and sonata for cello plus two sonatines. And last there was this one, Frank Martin's concerto and ballade for cello and 8 Preludes for orchestra.

Martin Klett together with the Armida Quartett perform late Romantic Piano Quintets by Cesar Franck and Frank Martin. "… We only have two hands, and our ten fingers are not capable of exploiting all the possibilities": that is how composer Frank Martin (1890-1974) once described the inadequacies of the keyboard. However, pianist Martin Klett and the members of the Armida Quartet view things somewhat differently. Similarly to the string quartet as a whole ensemble, the piano forms "a perfect unit in itself", Klett affirms.

Frank Martin's most important choral work is his a cappella Mass for Double Choir (1922-1926), though he also composed several short occasional choral pieces, which Harry Christophers and the Sixteen present with the Mass to round out this 2005 release. By arranging the program with less familiar works first, Christophers wants listeners to discover the variety of Martin's vocal writing, and to hear pieces that are seldom performed, let alone performed as well as this superb ensemble delivers them.

It took Frank Martin a long time to heed his deep-seated inner calling to write a Requiem: 'What I have tried to express here is the clear will to accept death; to make peace with it.' The Requiem was composed in 1971/72, Martin utilizes the whole bandwidth of orchestral sound and explores all opportunities for interplay among the vocalists, as well. Leoš Janácek's setting of the Otcenáš, the Lord's Prayer, is not a conventionally religious work. The Czech composer was more interested in it's social aspects than any theological musings.

Frank Martin's discography has expanded over the last few years. The most prominent of these new releases was the first ever complete recording of his opera Der Sturm which was issued last year by Hyperion. However, some of his most significant works have yet to make their way onto disc; one such is Pseaumes de Genève (1958). In that neglected vein we are now introduced to Le Conte de Cendrillon (Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel).

A recording dedicated to Frank Martin, an important figure of 20th century music, faithful to the tonal tradition, while experimenting with forms and instrumentation; he was also one of the first "classical" composers to have written for the electric guitar!