Bedřich Smetana (1824 - 1884) Czech

Bedřich Smetana (1824 - 1884) was a Czech composer.  Although there had been important Czech composers in the Baroque and Classical eras, Smetana's importance lies in his using Czech folk music in the Romantic era the contributed to the rise of Czech nationalism.  He preceded
Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1911) as the first Czech romantic composer to receive worldwide recognition.  

Smetana's most famous compositions are his opera The Bartered Bride (1866) and the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland" - premiered in full in 1880).

           (The Czech Philharmonic playing Má vlast.  1 hour, 30 min.)


Smetana did not write many works for the piano, but the few he did write are worth knowing.


From the early Romantic era:


Six Characteristic Pieces (1848) was dedicated to Franz Liszt. Liszt described them as "the most outstanding, finely felt and finely finished pieces that have recently come to my note."  (play - 25 min)

1.  In the Wood   2.  Emerging Passion   3.  The Shepherdess   4.  Desire   5.  Warrior   6.  In Desperation   


Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 (1855)  (play - 30 min)

      1.  Moderato assai - Più animato – 0:00
      2.  Allegro, ma non agitato – 11:25
      3.  Finale. Presto – 20:01



From the later Romantic era:

Smetana went death rather suddenly in 1874.  Nonetheless, he continued composing producing most of his famous Má vlast after that date as well as three substantial piano cycles. The first, from 1875, was entitled Dreams.  It was dedicated to former pupils of Smetana's, who had raised funds to cover medical expenses, and is also a tribute to the composer's models of the 1840s—Schumann, Chopin and Liszt.


Smetana's last major piano works were the two Czech Dances cycles of 1877 and 1879. The first of these had the purpose, as Smetana explained to his publisher, of "idealizing the polka, as Chopin in his day did with the mazurka."  The second cycle is a medley of dances, each given a specific title so that people would know "...which dances with real names we Czechs have."

Two of Smetana's late song cycles, Dreams and the second Czech dances of 1789, are subtitled Six Characteristic Pieces, the primary title of the 1848 piano song cycle.