Bohuslav Martinů - Film en Miniature 

- Composer: Bohuslav Martinů (8 December 1890 - 28 August 1959)
- Performer: Lada Valešová (piano)
- Year of recording: 2008
Film en Miniature, cycle of 6 pieces for piano, H. 148, written in 1925.
Martinů wrote over two hundred piano pieces. However, despite always having some of his virtuoso friends-including Rudolf Firkušný-willing to perform his compositions, Martinů’s output for the piano is not central in his overall work. It is perhaps fair to say that the composer used his piano output for testing ideas later employed in his major symphonic works. Most of Martinů’s piano pieces are usually collected in small cycles that are characteristic not so much for their cyclical form but rather for their playful atmosphere and rhythmical invention.
Such is the case of the cycle Film in Miniature (H. 148) composed not long after the composer’s relocation to Paris in 1923. The pieces are stylisations of the then modern dances beginning with an energetic tango, a nimble Scherzo, a gentle Ukolébavka (Czech cradle-song), a Valse, a Chanson, and concluding with a sunny, ringing Carillon.
It is evident from the autograph that the original title was ‘On the way, a cycle of piano compositions’. Different names were also ascribed to individual movements and they related to Martinů’s native village Polička or to parts of Paris (for example, the fifth movement was called ‘Paris: Jardin du Luxembourg’). It is not known why the original titles and order of the movements was in the end changed, however we know for sure from the composer’s correspondence that the change was authorised.