Ondes Martinu


One work that has slipped down the cracks in the current Martinů revival is his 1944 Fantaisie scored for ondes Martenot, piano, oboe and string quartet. The Fantaisie was originally written for theremin but Martinů approved the use of the ondes Martenot as a more practical alternative to the temparemental theremin.

Martinů's Fantaisie is one of the works on the disc seen above. Thomas Bloch studied the ondes Martenot with Jeanne Loriod, who was the younger sister of Olivier Messiaen's second wife. The composers on the CD range from Messiaen to Etienne Rolin (b.1952) as well as including Thomas Bloch's own compositions. This 2004 Naxos disc ticks all the boxes: it showcases rewarding music with wonderful performances, fills some important gaps in the catalogue, is captured in particularly vivid sound and comes at a very affordable price. More on the ill-starred theremin here.

The Naxos ondes Martenot CD was bought online. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

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