| Content | Answer to a letter from 31th of May 1955, he thinks to remember the encounter with Martinů in Paris.
He is sending the orchestral score of SINFONIA CONCERTANTE, H 219. He doesn't know the exact date of its genesis but considers the year 1931, because then Schott bought the manuscript from Martinů and he himself [Wilhelm Strecker] brought it from Paris to Mainz. The war and other difficulties however impeded its publication.
Replying to a request regarding the second version of the CELLO CONCERTO, H 196, he writes, that Schott is only holding the first version [H 196 I] , because Pierre Fournier did not return the new orchestra scores [of H 196 II] by now. He regrets, too, that he cannot even send a score of the original version, because there are only two of them.
He writes about a correspondence with Bohuslav Martinů, who announced to having planned a further, third revisal of the CELLO CONCERTO, H 196 III, and was asking if Schott is willing to produce a piano reduction from it. Schrecker's reply has been positive with the note, that the scores are still in possession of PF.
Announcation of finally publishing of the second version [?] of the SUITE CONCERTANTE, H 276, in orchestral score and piano reduction and some notes about its emergence. He got the score while being in New York and is now waiting for the last correctures before publishing.
At last he provides the recipient with some personal memories of Martinů's first time in Paris. He remarks to having him introduced to Samuel Dushkin, and that thanks to the latter he also got to know Nadia Boulanger. BM was living in bad conditions, so the victory in the Coolidge Award could help him very much, he took part without knowing, thanks to his friends. It follows an anecdote by SD about how was BM glad about the win and how he calculated the money exchange rate from dollars to francs everyday, to maximize the sum. |