GERMAINE LEROUX French Pianist signed jumbo BATA program on her photo 1948

Description

Autographed bi-fold large 8.25” x 11.75” program, Zlin, February 19, 1948.  The pianist performed with the BATA National Shoe Company Orchestra under the direction of Rudolf Kvasnica.  On the program was Beethoven’s Leonore overture no. 3, Beethoven’s piano concerto no. 4 and Dvorak’s 2nd symphony.
BATA Shoe Company was nationalized in 1945 after the War.  They were founded in 1894 in the Moravian town of Zlin and were one of the large major Czech manufacturers.  One of their perks was they had their own orchestra.
Germaine Leroux (1906-1979) was a pupil or Marguerite Long and graduated from the Paris Conservatoire in 1924 with a first prize in piano performance.  In 1923 she had performed for the Eiffel Tower radio station and continued from time to time performing on the station both as a solo and chamber artist.  She also played in the Colonne Concerts as a soloist with Vincent D’Indy conducting his own works.  Her repertoire was expansive and she played everything from Bach to more contemporary French composers of the time.  Along the way she met the Czech Diplomat and Musicologist Milos Safranek who was living in Paris in the early 1930’s.  He introduced her to Bohuslav Martinu who was an ex-pat living in Paris at the time.  That led to a great musical friendship and she married Safranek in 1934.  The marriage was a turning point in her career as she began to absorb the music of  contemporary Czech composers giving many their first performances of their works in France.  Martinu wrote his 2nd Piano Concerto for her and dedicated the work to her in 1934.  Interestingly Rudolf Firkusny gave the first performance in 1935, she gave the Paris Premiere in 1937. (She also gave the Luxembourg premiere a year earlier) Leroux also gave a performance of the work on the Eiffel Tower radio station.  Martinu also wrote his Sinfonietta Giocosa was written in the old style with a modern twist for and dedicated to Leroux and she gave the World Premiere in 1942 and recorded the work in 1947.   She also began to broadcast works of contemporary Czech composers on the radio station in 1937.  Moving backwards, in 1935 Leroux accompanied her husband to Prague and began to give recitals of contemporary French music to Czech audiences.  In 1936 she accompanies French bass-baritone Charles Panzera in concerts in Czechoslovakia and also a few concerts with the Trio Pasquier that season.  The Trio concerts went so well they were all invited back in 1937 for a 10 concert tour, our broadside was for one of those concerts.  He concert included a works by Vitezslav Novak, Bohuslav Martinu, solo piano works by Debussy, Roussel, Ravel and Faure and concluded with Faure’s Piano Quartet.
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