In the domain of concerted music, the first representative work of Bohuslav Martinů is his Concertino for Violoncello, accompanimented by wind band, percussion and piano [H 143]. The numerous group of his works for solo violoncello comprises also two concertos, with orchestra (1930, [H 196 I]) and (1945, [H 304]), Sonata da camera [H 283] for violoncello and chamber orchestra (1940), three sonatas and a number of other compositions, with piano accompaniment, of by no means lesser significance (especially, for instance, Variations on a Rossini Theme [H 290], of 1942, or [Variations] on a Slovak folk song [H 378] from 1959). […]
The Concertino arose at the beginning of the Paris years of the composer’s production and bears the marks of period of stylistic transition. Its single-movement form has certain rhapsodical quality which gives space to the solo element, but at the same time loosens the formal integration of the work. Similarly, the rich variety and the well-defined independent character of a relatively large number of thematic groups still point to the early period of the composer’s output. Later Martinů achieved a striking reduction of his musical thought and a strict limitation of any tendency towards thematic exuberance. Already in the Concertino, however, there is clearly observable a striving economy of thought and expresion […].
An anticipation of the composer’s musical idiom of the coming decades is the greater rhythmico-metrical emancipation, apparent as yet mainly in the variety of bar measures and their combinations […], but also in characteristic syncopations […]. This greater freedom in the rhythmico-metrical structure is paralleled in the handling of the tonalities. The tonal structure is still based on the procedures of Late Romanticist harmony; but whereas the melody of the leading part evolves from a diatonic base, the background texture of the other parts makes effective use of the clash of the dissonance, thus turning its back on the harmonic world of the preceding half-century. […]
The dedication of the composition links it with the violoncellist of Dutch origin, Maurits Frank, who belonged to the circle of the composer’s friends. Along with Stanislav Novák, Frank–previously member of the celebrated Amar-Hindemith Quartet–founded a successful quartet ensemble, whose repertoire included Bohuslav Martinů’s Second Quartet [H 150], dedicated to this chambre ensemble.
Jaroslav Mihule, Bohuslav Martinů: Concertino for Violoncello and Small Orchestra (piano score), Praha: Panton, 1973, p. IV–V.