A miniature, bearing the title The Haunted Train, H 258, originated for the piano album "Parc d'attractions, Expo 1937" and is dedicated to the celebrated French pianist Marguerite Long. Besides Martinů, his friends from the Ecole de Paris - Alexander Tcherepnin, Alexander Tansman, and Marcel Mihalovici, along with Arthur Honegger, Vittorio Rieti, Frederic Mompou and Ernesto Halffter - are also represented. All of these composers were foreigners, allured by the extremely inspiring atmosphere of inter-war Paris and living in the city for at least a short time. At the same time, the album is a response to the similar, slightly older, purely French collection titled ,,A Madame Marguerite Long: à l'Exposition. Illustration Musicales de Georges Auric, Marcel Delannoy, Jacques Ibert, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Henri Sauguet, Florent Schmidt et Germaine Taileferre." As the title indicates, the authors of the Parc d'attractions album focused on individual attractions located on the Expo 1937 exhibition grounds. We can find, for example, tiny portraits of a female dancer with lions, a circus giant, and a male Romanian dancer. Martinů eschewed the risk of literality - apart from the final braking of a locomotive, The Haunted Train does not contain anything descriptive. This witty miniature is also an organic part of the composer's compositional style of the 1930s.
Aleš Březina, Martinů / Jeux, © Supraphon