The two violin concertos were recorded in 1973 not long after the score of the First Violin Concerto (1932-4) came to light. That work was composed for Samuel Dushkin, for whom Stravinsky had composed his Concerto in D, but it was never performed during Martinu's lifetime and the score went astray. Its first performance did not take place until 1973, when Josef Suk played it with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Solti. It finds Martinu in his early 1930s neo-classical mode. The Second Concerto was composed in New York a decade later in the winter of 1943, a few months before the Second Symphony with which it shares some spiritual kinship. It was commissioned by Mischa Elman who had been much taken by the First Symphony and who premiered the concerto at the very end of that year with Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
There have been alternative versions of the Second Concerto by Louis Kaufman (Cambria, 8/92) and Bruno Belcik (Supraphon, 11/62 – nla), but none of the First. In my original review of the present recording on LP, I spoke of the First as ''a stimulating piece, distinguished by Martinu's fine craftsmanship and resourceful technique and marked by many of his concerto-grosso figures of speech'', and the Second as ''a serene, lovely work to whose lyricism Suk's art is so naturally attuned'' – and I see no reason to modify that verdict.
The Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra takes us another decade onward to 1952. It is a more substantial piece and deeper in feeling. In a sense it is more a concertante work than a concerto, for though there are elements of dialogue and display, it seems indifferent to virtuosity for its own sake. There are four other recordings: Rivka Golani, Lubomir Maly, Milan Telecky and Nabuko Imai. Imai has great spontaneity and her tone has splendid opulence but the excessive reverberance of the Malmo acoustic is a drawback. Rivka Golani gives a thoughtful performance I like her unaffected eloquence. However, Suk's performance is a very fine one and the Czech Philharmonic under the late Vaclav Neumann are eminently responsive, even if Peter Maag finds a depth and poignancy in this score that rather eludes Neumann. The present coupling makes this a highly desirable disc.'