| Content | Miloš Šafránek thanks you for your letter. He feels sorry for the fan [Martinů], hopefully the spring sun will recover him. He sees that Marie Martinů is working hard at the Museum where she is organizing BM's things. Many would like to have a family reunion with BM, but unfortunately everything depends on the political situation. However, they believe in an agreement.
He has already finished the book [autobiography about BM], now he is doing the final editing. The book will be published in this form in German and English, some parts will be different for the Czech edition. The book is more work than he had counted on. What does the BM archive in Polička look like now? He assumes that the manuscripts have moved from the vaults to the Museum and that more have been added. Are the manuscripts not among the 1927 Nonet [presumably thought to be Nonet No. 1, H 144)? The opera ALEXANDRE BIS and the ballet THE COURT OF PARID are probably not there yet?
MS is also interested in BM's source of income after leaving the Conservatoire, and since when he started giving private lessons. Apparently [Isha] Popelka wrote about this stage of BM's life in his diploma thesis, but MŠ knows only part 1 of it (published in a collection), and he doesn't want to share the rest. Popelka twisted the first part a bit ideologically. He doesn't want to build on Popelka's work, rather criticize it.
MŠ would like to read the foreign-language reviews of THE MOUNTAIN OF THREE LIGHTS. He would also like to read the reviews of GILGAMES. GILGAMES is on the [Prague Spring] programme for 28 May, staged by [Václav] Smetáček and performed by the Kühn Choir. MŠ has intervened in the Czech translation of Gilgamesh. When he finishes the manuscript of the English edition, he will begin the Czech one. He is consulting BM by correspondence.
He would like to go to Polička, but for now he is working from morning till evening. How is Maruška [Pražanová] and what about their cottage on Lucky Hill, is it still occupied? The kindergarten also remembers their big hut. He likes the Highlands very much. |