The Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, H 337, originated in 1952. In previous years, Martinů became established in the USA as one of the most successful composers, appreciated by the public, performers, and music critics. At the same time, however, he was gradually preparing for his definitive move back to Europe. A major factor in this decision was the escalating political situation on both sides of the divided world, which in the USA manifested in the House Un-American Activities Committee that impacted a range of prominent figures from the arts and sciences. A return to Communist Czechoslovakia, divided from the democratic world by the Iron Curtain, was equally unimaginable for him. Since American citizenship was an obstacle for permanent residency in France for both he and his wife Charlotte, they would always live there only temporarily for several months, and from 1953 lived mostly in Italy and Switzerland.
A clearer and lighter composition approach was characteristic of the later period of Martinů's work, contrasting sharply with the onset of the post-war musical avant-garde. However, this international freeing and simplifying of expressive means (in harmony, for example, a marked use of major and minor triads without the added tones, which were typical for Martinů up until that time) was not due to the composer resorting to complacency or being ignorant of the new generation, whose work he actually followed closely (for instance Pierre Boulez). The development was a result of a long phase of thorough experimentation. The specific character of this final creative period, beginning with the Rhapsody-Concerto, emerged from the completely distinct development of Martinů's music thinking. He did not consider the progressiveness of technical and expressive devices as genuine originality but regarded them as extramusical criteria - music composed like its is not a goal in his view, but merely a means of the composer's clear feeling for questions of form. By not referring to this predominantly meditative work as a viola concerto, he distinguished it from his earlier concertos, which were marked by a fixed formal structure.
Sandra Bergmannová, Paul Silverthorne, Jitka Zichová, Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition III/1/8, © 2019 Editio Bärenreiter Praha