MusiLLection

  A piano edition of Bedřich Smetana’s polkas, dedicated to his daughters, reflecting the personal and lyrical side of his piano writing. Bedřich Smetana ’s output spans nearly all major musical genres of the nineteenth century and stands at the core of Czech national music. From opera and symphonic poetry to chamber music and piano works, his compositions reflect a conscious effort to unite cultivated musical forms with a distinctly national idiom.  Operas The Brandenburgers in Bohemia The Bartered Bride Dalibor Libuše The Kiss The Secret The Devil’s Wall Orchestral works Triumphal Symphony in E major Richard III Wallenstein’s Camp Hakon Jarl Festive Overture Má vlast (My Homeland) Prague Carnival Chamber music Piano Trio in G minor String Quartet No. 1 in E minor “From My Life” Duos for Violin and Piano “From My Homeland” String Quartet No. 2 in D minor Piano works Six Characteristic Pieces Album Leaves Three Poetic Polkas Memories of Bohemia Dreams 14 Czech Dances Songs and...

    Smetana’s fondness for the polka is reflected in the rhythmic vitality of String Quartet No. 1, where dance becomes a symbol of youthful joy and memory. The intensity of this deeply autobiographical work, infused with elements of Czech national identity, reveals an emotional depth unparalleled elsewhere in Smetana’s output. The first signs of Smetana’s hearing loss appeared as early as 1847 , in the form of a persistent and unbearable ringing in his ears—what would later be identified as tinnitus. When, in 1876 , he finally realized that his hearing would never return, he began composing the String Quartet No. 1 , a four-movement chamber work through which he sought to express musically the anguish and suffering caused by his encroaching deafness. More than twenty years had passed since his last chamber composition, the Piano Trio in G minor , written in response to the death of his four-year-old daughter. Once again, Smetana turned to chamber music as a means of confront...

Prague, the city where Bedřich Smetana came to study and where his love for music often drew him to concerts rather than classrooms. In 1848, liberal revolutions erupted across Europe. Although most of them failed, their impact was profound, awakening among ordinary people an unprecedented sense of national identity. This sentiment was especially powerful in Bohemia, where the Czech people had lived for centuries under Habsburg rule as part of the Austrian Empire. This renewed patriotic spirit found powerful musical expression in Bedřich Smetana ’s three-act festival opera Libuše , composed between 1869 and 1872. A master craftsman of the symphonic poem, Smetana infused his operatic writing with freshness, dramatic intensity, and architectural clarity. Deeply influenced by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt , Smetana nevertheless forged a highly personal musical language—one that exalted the spirit, history, and aspirations of the Czech nation. The opera draws on legendary events surround...

  A wedding scene from The Bartered Bride , reflecting the joyful, communal spirit that permeates Smetana’s comic opera. Composed between 1863 and 1866 to a libretto by Karel Sabina , The Bartered Bride is set in a Bohemian village and unfolds as a unified comic narrative with a romantic core. It was the second of Bedřich Smetana ’s eight operas and a decisive step in his lifelong ambition to establish a distinctly Czech national opera tradition—something that did not yet exist at the time. Smetana revised the work no fewer than five times between 1866 and 1870, gradually transforming it from a modest operetta into the full-scale three-act comic opera known today. This process of refinement strengthened both its dramatic coherence and its musical vitality. Overture Smetana had often been accused of imitating the monumental operatic style of Richard Wagner , and critics claimed he lacked the ability to write light-hearted, joyful music. The Bartered Bride decisively refuted these...

Bedřich Smetana, founder of the Czech national school of music. One needs only to follow attentively the course of the Vltava River as it unfolds—thoughtfully and spontaneously—through the sounds of the homonymous symphonic poem by Bedřich Smetana , to grasp the musical philosophy of the Bohemian composer—a philosophy that was inseparable from his view of life itself. Through his work, Smetana proposes a compelling model of programmatic music, a lucid expression of national consciousness, and a refined synthesis of narrative suggestion and traditional musical language. His art does not merely describe; it evokes, persuades, and ultimately convinces through sound. Vltava stands as the most intimate manifestation of Smetana’s musical thought, yet within it are condensed all the structural and expressive elements that characterize his oeuvre as a whole. The rhythmic vitality that animates his music is balanced by tenderness, emotional depth, and a subtle wit. Rhythm and melody—deeply r...