Bohuslav Martinu

Romanze für Violine und Klavier H 186bis

Until recently, nobody knew of the existence of Bohuslav Martinu's "Romance for Violin and Piano" H 186bis from 1930, especially as the composer had not mentioned the work in any of his personal catalogs. In 2022, the musicologist Natálie Krátká from the Bohuslav Martinu Institute in Prague discovered the composition by chance in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem - a truly unique discovery of a completely unknown work from the estate of the French photographer of Ukrainian-Jewish origin Boris Lipnitzky, with whom Martinu was friends during his stay in Paris. The short, delicately melancholy work received its world premiere at Wigmore Hall in London on January 10, 2023, performed by Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen. The "Romance" is now appearing in print for the first time. This adds another work by Martinu to the violin repertoire. Due to its brevity (duration approx. three minutes), it is also suitable as an encore and, thanks to its technically not very demanding violin part, can also be played by less advanced violinists.