Martinů’s Les Rondes
Six round dances for seven musicians, Moravian temperament, jazz and one melody you may know from childhood. Watch the finale of Martinů’s Les Rondes performed by Quasars Ensemble at the 60th Bratislava Music Festival.
The new section of the Silenzio magazine is Si gira – trailers from concerts in our archive. First silence, then the music. The first one is the finale of Les Rondes by Bohuslav Martinů, performed by Quasars Ensemble and conductor Ivan Buffa at the concert of 29 September 2025 in the Column Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic, part of the 60th Bratislava Music Festival.
Paris, 1930
After arriving in Paris, Martinů found himself in a world where many currents met, and he quickly became part of its artistic life. Like many composers of those years, he was fascinated by jazz – his jazz ballet Kuchyňská revue (The Kitchen Revue), after its Paris performance, opened the way to the publisher Leduc.
He completed Les Rondes on 23 November 1930 for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, two violins and piano. The six movements refer to the round dances popularised by Stravinsky, but Martinů combined them with Moravian and Czech folk music. The result is music of transparent texture, energetic rhythm and humour, here and there with a touch of jazz – and perhaps the closest he ever came to his great compatriot Leoš Janáček.
He dedicated the piece to Jan Kunc, director of the Brno Conservatory, who offered him a professorship in composition – Martinů declined. The premiere was conducted by Alfred Cortot on 16 March 1932 at the École Normale de Musique in Paris; the Czech premiere followed a year later in Brno under Zdeněk Chalabala.
Allegro vivo
The trailer captures the last, sixth movement. One tip: listen carefully. A melody in it may remind you of a famous animated series. Which one? We leave the answer to you.
Who plays
Les Rondes were played by members of Quasars Ensemble Róbert Holota (oboe), Jozef Eliáš (clarinet), Peter Kajan (bassoon), Rastislav Suchan (trumpet), Vira Zhuk and Peter Mosorjak (violins) and Diana Buffa (piano), conducted by Ivan Buffa.
The whole concert
Besides Martinů, the concert featured Lutosławski's Dance Preludes, Berio's Folk Songs with soloist Josefine Göhmann, Burlas's The Fear and Boulez's Dérive 1. We wrote about the whole evening in the article Last weeks: the Quasars Ensemble concert from the 60th BHS.
The trailer and the concert recording were produced by the StreamTeam of the Slovak Philharmonic. The text about the piece draws on Ivan Buffa's programme note for the concert.
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