When Halbreich’s Catalogue of Bohuslav Martinů’s Works was reissued in 2007, it was assumed that the composer had written a total of 15 ballets, one of which, Le jugement de Paris, H 245 (The Judgement of Paris, 1935), was shrouded in mystery. The later discovery of the complete continuous sketch of Le jugement de Paris in the archives of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel and the entirely unknown ballet Les maains in the personal effects Yelizaveta Nikolskaya deposited in the archives of the National Theatre in Prague has significantly altered the situation.
Martinů became acquainted with Yelizaveta Nikolskaya in 1924 at the latest, when she danced the titular role at the world premiere of his ballet Istar. At the present time, it is not known how and when Nikolskaya commissioned a new composition from him for her ballet troupe’s dance show. What is certain, however, is that the work originated in 1927 (as documented by the date in one of the instrumental parts) and that the composer soon forgot about it (evidently above all because of its duration of less than five minutes and owing to its application in vaudevilles, beyond concert stages). A mere six years after the work originated, Martinů wrote to his family in Polička in response to a letter that has not been preserved, saying that he did not know to which composition Nikolskaya actually danced, “since I have never written anything to Březina’s Hands”. He evidently confused his miniature ballet with the cycle to the then famous 1901 volume of poems by Otokar Březina (1868-1929). Half a year later, he again wrote from Paris to Polička that “after returning from America” Nikolskaya told him that “the piece of mine had had the greatest success and that she would dance it on Friday”. He mentioned the selfsame in an undated letter to Polička, writing that: “tomorrow I will go to see Mrs Nikolskaya, who also dances one of my pieces”. On this occasion, Martinů evidently received as a present a photograph bearing Yelizaveta Nikolskaya’s dedication in which she refers to his ballet by the French title “Les mains”.
The autograph parts contain other language variants of the title, “Ruce“, “Hände” and “Russische Hände”. Yet nothing is known about the ballet’s content. The last mention of the ballet Les mains can perhaps be found in the conductor Karel Šejna’s response of 6 July 1955 to now lost letter by the music historian Miloš Šafránek. Šejna suggested without certainty that at the mentioned (unspecified) concert the music from the ballet Istar, which was then danced by Nikolskaya at the National Theatre, was performed. She probably used a section from the ballet. Accordingly, it is not clear whether in this case it concerned music from the ballet Istar or music from the ballet Le mains.
By all accounts, Nikolskaya and her company repeatedly performed Les mains as part of a feature-length ballet production. In addition to the aforementioned performances in the USA and Paris in the 1930s, the last documented performance took place on 30 April 1941. Afterwards, the work fell into oblivion and only re-emerged in August 2011 in the form of a copy of the orchestral parts found in a box from Yelizaveta Nikolskaya’s personal effects deposited in the archives of the National Theatre in Prague. For the time being, we do not have the entire ballet available. The part of the first bassoon is certainly missing, yet it is not difficult to complete it according to the parts of the other instruments. The extremely original instrumental configuration is characteristic of Martinů’s compositions dating from the 1920s; in this case it is 2-1-1-2, 3-1-3-0 with a tuba instead of the third trombone, 2 pf, Vl 1+2 and Vc. Naturally, it is not possible to rule out with complete certainty that viola, double-bass and even percussion parts might be found in some other archives in the future. Nevertheless, the preserved configuration is undoubtedly sufficiently representative and legitimate. In musical terms, the ballet Les mains is charged with an aggressive energy similar to that of the brass and percussion dominated 1924 orchestral piece Half-Time, H 124 (also marked Allegro con brio at the opening), and can also be compared to the extremely Neo-Classical polyphonic ballet Le Raid merveilleux.
Aleš Březina, Harmonie, 1/2012