Discovering Music - Martinu: Piano Concerto No 2

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Bohuslav Martinu's death, Stephen Johnson joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conductor Tecwyn Evans and pianist Martin Roscoe for an exploration of music by Martinu. Stephen focuses on the Second Piano Concerto, written in the mid-1930s during Martinu's years in Paris. The city was the hothouse of modernism in the 1920s and 30s, attracting artists such as Picasso and composers such as Stravinsky, and while such charismatic figures left their mark on Martinu, the composer nonetheless ploughed his own distinctive artistic furrow, resulting in a very individual voice. Stephen also explores Martinu's Three Inventions for Orchestra, composed at the same time, which paved the way for his subsequent series of five symphonies.