| Content | Bohuslav Martinů was delighted with a letter from Vladimír Vaněk. His general mood has improved, he can now eat various delicacies and has already gained 2 kg. The unpleasant thing is that he has to work again, because he is being pressured by his Editor [Universal Edition], who is looking forward to earning money on the GREEK PASSIONS, which are still waiting to be finished. And so BM taps the piano and tries to finish the work. They didn't have snow, they had a nice Christmas, they were with the Sachers a lot. The premiere of JULIETTA will take place in Wiesbaden on the 26th of January. At the end of January the premiere of the CLAVIER'S CONCERT [No. 5] is to be in Berlin, but they don't know yet, because the conductor Friscay [Ferenc Fricsay] was also in surgery. They will repeat SEXTET in Zurich. They call from Prague every morning because they want to perform MIRANDOLINA in May at the Prague Spring Festival. BM asks VV to phone Edice Ricordi to see if they know anything about the opera audition. BM also sent his sin [the opera ARIADNA] there and now he would need to get it back. The competition was anonymous so BM can't ask himself, maybe the audition hasn't been decided yet or they haven't awarded the prize. The decision was due at the end of November and BM wants copies of his one-act for Universal Edition. They had a visit from [Rafael] Kubelík for BM's birthday on 8/12, so they had a good time. BM is looking forward to finishing the opera, it's backpedaling. He has 8 minutes of score left, but it's hard work, by the end of the work the creative forces are running out. Opera is an impossible form because it always takes a long time. You say it with gusto and half the work is done, but there's still the other half. They write from Prague that OPENING STUDIES will be released on LP, so hopefully [Jakerl's] friends in Sweden will see it. They sent him a nice card. They remember Rome. From Cameroon, [Jan M.] Kolar wrote that his novel [La Monnaie de retour (Money Back/Money to Return, Paris, Editions Julliard, 1959)] will be published. |