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Blacklisted by the Nazis, Czech-born composer Bohuslav Martinu fled Europe in January 1941, crossing the Atlantic to shelter in the USA. Four years later, the Germans were vanquished – and the fugitive composer marked their defeat with this symphonic tour de force.

There’s also music from another European who found wartime exile in America: Igor Stravinsky, who wrote this expressive 1948 ballet while living in Los Angeles.
In between, Andrei Ionita is the soloist in Dvorák’s compelling Cello Concerto, a work begun in America and completed on the Czech composer’s return to Bohemia.