''La revue de cuisine'' (H 161,

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

: ''Kuchyňská revue'') is a ballet in one act by Czech composer

Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...

. It was created for sextet:

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

(B),

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, composed in 1927. It was premiered in November 1927 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. The suite drawn from the ballet was premiered in January 1930, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Work

In response to a commission by Božena Neběská and to a scenario by

Jarmila Kröschlová Jarmila Kröschlová (19 March 1893 – 9 January 1983) was one of the most important representatives of modern dance in Czechoslovakia. She was one of the leading European expressionist dancers and as a choreographer had wide influence on other da ...

, Martinů wrote a witty curtain-raiser called ''Pokušení svatoušká hrnec'' (''Temptation of the Saintly Pot'') and with it scored his first popular success under the revised title ''La Revue de cuisine''. Here the dancers play a variety of cooking utensils which swagger their way through a naïve episode of kitchen life. The marriage of Pot and Lid is in danger of being broken up by the suave Twirling Stick. Pot succumbs to his flattery. Dishcloth makes eyes at Lid but is challenged to a duel by Broom. Pot, however, tires of Twirling Stick and longs for Lid's caresses, but Lid cannot be found anywhere. Suddenly an enormous foot appears from the wings and kicks him back on stage. Pot and Lid kiss and make up and, flirting once again, Twirling Stick goes off with Dishcloth.

Structure

The ballet is in ten movements: # Prologue (Allegretto) # Introduction (Tempo de marche) # Danse du moulinet autour du caudron (Poco meno) # Danse du chaudron et du couvercle (Allegro) # Tango (Danse d'amour. Lento) # Duel (Poco a poco allegro. Tempo di Charleston) # Entracte (Lamentation du chaudron. Allegro moderato) # Marche funèbre (Adagio) # Danse radieuse (Tempo di marche) # Fin du drame (Allegretto) The suite is in four movements: Prologue,

Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoundlan ...

, and Final. The score for the suite was published in Paris shortly after its premiere. The full score for the ballet was discovered in the early 1990s in the archives of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel and published in Paris in 2004.Martinů: Le Raid mervielleux, La Revue de cuisine, On tourme!. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood. Supraphon, p2004. Liner notes by Aleš Březina. The music involves complex time schemes – for example the Final, which involves an opening piano solo marked "Tempo di marcia". This section switches between 2/4, 3/8 and 4/8 in an almost unpredictable fashion, generating the desired rhythmical offbeats typical of the jazz of the period. Further

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

influences are seen in the instrumentation: the piano using rich harmony and dissonance, the muted trumpet reminiscent of the jazz bands of the era, and the repeated use of pizzicato in the cello part, echoing the use of the double bass in jazz. This is a progressive piece of music which helps to draw the link between early and mid twentieth-century music.

References

* Martinů: La Revue de cuisine / The Kitchen Revue – Text by Christophe Garda – Intrada 2007

Selected recordings

* Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Christopher Hogwood. Supraphon 2004. SU 3749-2 031 * ''Bohuslav Martinů: La Revue de Cuisine, Nonet, Three Madrigals, and other chamber music'', The Dartington Ensemble (leader: Oliver Butterworth) (2 CDs, Hyperion Dyad, 1998) * Holst Sinfonietta, Klaus Simon Naxos 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Revue de Cuisine 1927 compositions Ballets by Bohuslav Martinů 1927 ballet premieres Compositions for piano sextet