BOHUSLAV MARTINU (1890-1959): Sinfonietta Giocosa for Piano and Small Orchestra, H.282, Jazz Suite, H.172, Toccata e due canzoni, H.311.

Description: The Sinfonietta (1940) is one of most joyous and optimistic pieces you'd ever want to hear - four fast movements brimming with sunlight and energy - yet it was written while Martinu was making regular commutes between Aix-en-Provence and Marseilles in the dead of winter, trying to get all the paperwork in place for his escape from occupied France to the U.S. It's fallen out of the catalogue until now. As is also the case with the Jazz Suite of 1928, a four-movement piece for piano and eleven instruments in much the same milieu as Weill's Kleine Dreigroschenmusik. Claire Désert (piano), Orchestre de Picardie; Pascal Verrot.