Bohuslav Martinu

Serenade no. 3 H 218

Unusual instrumentations were by no means the exception in the chamber music works of Bohuslav Martinu, most notably the works he wrote in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s being characterised by his experimentation with sound and form. It is from this period that four short serenades also originate (1932), each with a different instrumentation. The serenades were issued by the Prague publishing house Melantrich in 1949.

Their premiere took place two years previously on 16 October 1947 and was performed by members of the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK).
Although the study score of the Serenades Nos. 1 and 3 was published while the composer was still alive, he was in fact not involved in preparing this edition; indeed, the performance material also appeared in print without his participation in 1954. It was therefore decided to use the autograph score as the principal source for this edition.