Le Noël

Martinù composed these three short pieces for piano in Paris during the Christmas of 1927. The Christmas atmosphere is also reflected in the original titles of the separate compositions: Le Traîneau (The Sledge) in Allegro, Berceuse enfantin (Child’s Lullaby), and the faster Chante de Nöel (Christmas Carol). The pieces are more or less incidental compositions of medium difficulty which do not carry much of Martinù’s musical style of the period, but they do justice to the theme and character of the subject matter, that is the Christmas period and all that belongs to it, in an impressive and especially rewarding way.