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Bedřich Smetana

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Bedřich Smetana was born on 2 March 1824 in Litomyšl, in Bohemia, which at that time belonged to the Habsburg Empire. He first performed in public as a pianist at the age of six and later received lessons in Prague from Josef Proksch. In 1848 he briefly took part in the uprising in Prague and wrote his first nationalist music. He then left for Sweden, where he was a teacher and choral conductor in Gothenburg. In the early 1860s he returned to Prague for good, where the political climate had become freer.

Music and breakthrough

In Prague he became the champion of Czech opera. In 1866 his opera The Bartered Bride had its premiere, and it soon became very popular, and in the same year he became principal conductor of the Provisional Theatre. His admiration for Liszt and Wagner brought him much opposition. By 1874 he had become completely deaf, but it was precisely then that a long period of fruitful composing began. The best-known result is the cycle Má vlast, my homeland, a series of symphonic poems about the history, legends and landscape of Bohemia. It contains Vltava, called Die Moldau in German, a musical portrait of the river.

Influence

Smetana is regarded in the Czech Republic as the father of Czech music. He showed that a national style could grow out of one's own landscape and one's own stories, an idea that later recurs in popular music too. Outside his homeland it is mainly The Bartered Bride and Vltava that are regularly heard; many foreign experts rank Dvořák higher. He died in 1884 in Prague.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Vltava in the performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Kubelík. Notice how the theme of the river begins small in the flutes and clarinets and grows ever broader as more instruments join in.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsNationalist schools