Dear Frank: I. Bohuslav Martinů's Letters to Frank Rybka from 1941 to 1954 (Jana Honzíková ed.)

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The correspondence between Bohuslav Martinů and Frank Rybka often surprises with the directness, frankness and lightness of the composer as he asks for advice and help or describes everyday events. Frank Rybka was the composer's childhood friend and from the 1940s onwards was among his closest confidants. As a result, the writing is casual and relaxed. It reminds us of conversations between age-old comrades, where no topics, questions or requests are off the table. It is direct, playful, but also hedonistic. Additionally, however, it contains the composer's final will and testament from the dramatic year of 1948. After their arrival in March 1941, Frank Rybka helped the Martinů family build a new life in the United States. He organised their living quarters, transport, books, new contacts, helped negotiate royalties, find musicians, as well as provide Bohuslav Martinů with alibis for his holiday jaunts. This supportive role is also emphasized in the solitary letter from Martinů's girlfriend Rosalie Barstow. This first volume of correspondence with Frank Rybka highlights the origin and performance of a number of Bohuslav Martinů's compositions. It documents the complicated search for a soloist for his Cello Concerto No. 2, for the title of the composition Thunderbolt P-47, the work on the opera Mirandolina or Martinů's musings about Dostoyevsky's novel The Possessed. An ostensibly breezy exterior disguises the cavalcade of dramatic events that occurred to the composer and his wife Charlotte during the years 1941-1954.