Symphony No. 4

Bohuslav Martinů’s Fourth Symphony is the sound of an exile glimpsing light. Martinů escaped from Europe to the U.S. at the outbreak of the Second World War and promptly reinvented himself as a symphonist. He started his Fourth Symphony when victory was in sight, and it premiered in November 1945—the first autumn of peace. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s the most optimistic, even relaxed, symphony that Martinů had yet written. As it opens, the orchestra seems to exhale amid shimmering, dancing textures; the second movement is a brisk, dancing scherzo in the spirit of Dvořák. (Martinů’s thoughts may have already been turning back toward his native Czechoslovakia.) After a woodwind flourish, the “Largo” unfurls in blossoming, hazy song, and the finale gathers strands from throughout the symphony. But the overwhelming mood as the brass stride, ebullient and slightly lopsided, for the finish, is one of unbridled jubilation.