November: Bedřich Smetana's Má Vlast

[Seán]

Bedřich Smetana.

Born into a large family in the small town of Leito-mischel, Bedrich Smetana showed exceptional musical talent as a child, performing on the violin and piano at the age of 5 and writing his first compositions at 8. Despite his father's opposition to his musical training, he quickly gained a reputation as a pianist through his performances of the works of Franz Liszt. After moving to Prague in 1844, Smetana became music teacher to the family of the wealthy Count Thun but left after 4 years. With the help of Liszt, Smetana founded his own piano school.

In 1856 Smetana accepted a position as conductor of the Philharmonic Society of Göteborg, Sweden. While there he wrote his first important symphonic poems, including Wallenstein's Camp (1859) after Friedrich von Schiller's great dramatic trilogy. During this time, events were changing in Bohemia. Austria, weakened from futile attempts to maintain control over Italy, granted Bohemia political autonomy in 1860, which elicited strong national feelings from the Bohemians. The following year Smetana returned to Prague to become a leader in the new movement, the first substantial result of which was the establishment in 1862 of a theater where opera and drama could be presented in the Czech language.

On 27 June 1873 an article appeared in the Czech musical periodical Dalibor in which V.J. Novotný, stated that Smetana was planning to write a series of symphonic poems on subjects which had strong associations with Czech history and legend. Smetana had been considering this project for several months, and is believed to have been sketching the first of the new series of symphonic poems before he completed his fourth opera, Libuše, on 12 November 1872. The general title of the work was to be Vlast (Fatherland).

[Seán]

Over the past few weeks I have listened to several different verisions of Má Vlast, one of my favourites is the 1954 recording by Vaclav Talich with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra:


That said, my clear favourite is the wonderful, spine-tingling performance by the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of the incomparable, Rafael Kubelik and this will be my reference recording for this project:


The Kubelik/CPO cd is one of my favourite Christmas stocking fillers and it has always been very well received. So do please get a copy of this cd and listen to and enjoy the six beautiful Symphonic poems that go to make up Smetana's, Má Vlast. You have a week to get it.

On amazon.cu.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listin ... dition=new

On Amazon.fr: http://www.amazon.fr/gp/offer-listing/B ... dition=new

[Jose Echenique]

Right on the spot dear Seán: Talich & Kubelik. Enough said.

[jaybee]

I was only listening to it last night...!!

[fergus]

Good stuff Seán! I have both the Kubelik and the Talich so I seem to be well prepared for this one.
Best of luck with the thread; I am looking forward to it.

[Jose Echenique]

Other interesting recordings:

1. Over 4 decades Rafael Kubelik made recordings of Má Vlast with the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra before his comeback concert with the Czech Philharmonic. The Munich recording is definitely a must have, it may not be as momentous as the Czech concert, but working with "his" orchestra Kubelik gets a deeply musical and lovely Má Vlast.
2. Staatskapelle Dresden/Paavo Berglund. This 1971 recording is also extremely good. The Staatskapelle plays like gods and Berglund conducts a loving, warm performance. Only the sound is a little bit dated, not bad, but certainly they were making better sounding recordings at the time.
3.London Classical Players/Roger Norrington. This is the only recording on period instruments. A nice touch was to include the Czech National Anthem since it´s a century old tradition to perform it before Má Vlast in the Czech Republic. I believe this is the only recording to do so, and maybe it was possible because of Norrington´s very fast tempos. This is a very "dry" Má Vlast, Norrington may be right to exclude "personal interpretation" because at the time, the first conductors with "personal views" were only beginning to appear. The London Classical Players play well, but it´s not hard to imagine a much better performance from Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
4.Royal Concertgebouw/ Antal Dorati. This I believe was the first digital recording of Má Vlast. As expected the Concertgebouw plays magnificently, and Dorati shows that Hungary is not very far from Bohemia. Not as fervent or magical as the 2 Kubelik great recordings, but certainly worth having.
5.Vienna Philharmonic/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The Vienna Philharmonic may be the second best orchestra to play Smetana after the Czech Philharmonic. They have recorded the work with several conductors, including James Levine and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Both these conductors have interesting but not throughly successful versions. Harnoncourt may be the best Dvorak conductor of the past decade, quite simply he hasn´t put a foot wrong in Dvorak, and since he has Czech blood in him there were high expectations for his RCA Má Vlast. It is a beautiful but surprisingly very slow performance. I bet there are at least 15 minutes difference with Norrington since he needs a second cd. So sad to say, interesting but not essential.
6. The Czech Philharmonic has recorded Má Vlast with a plethora of conductors besides Talich and Kubelik, but I can´t recall a truly outstanding performance with any of them. Belohlavek has no less than 3 recordings, the best is a long deleted DENON live recording, the others are rather ordinary. Karel Ancerl has a Má Vlast on video with the Prague Spring Festival Orchestra that is very good, but the sound is poor.
7.Gewandhausorchester/Vaclav Newmann. This recording has more historical interest than musical. It was recorded in Leipzig at the time of the Russian invasion of Prague. The Czech Philharmonic never forgave Newmann for making this recording -Má Vlast of all things!!!- while the Russian tanks were killing hundreds of people. Newmann paid a dear price, he was never welcome back in the Czechoslovakia.

[Seán]

Lovely summary Pepe, thank you.

[Seán]

Bedřich Smetana’s (1824 – 1884) was successful in creating a valid national repertory. Smetana’s aim was to evolve a Czech tradition of composition, monumental and lofty in expression, which would integrate Czech music with the great achievement of the European pioneers of the day. Smetana often quoted or initiated folk melodies in his works; the spirit of folk music coloured his thinking and was an important contributory factor in the shaping of his highly original musical language.

Má Vlast
A tone-poem is a purely orchestral work in a single movement, which tells a story, or is otherwise intended to represent a specific mood and Má Vlast consists of six tone poems. The poems alternate between historical narratives of his native land and musical expressions of the landscape of Bohemia.
Bedřich Smetana conceived his cycle of symphonic poems, Má Vlast, as a monumental orchestral work which would be complimentary to his opera Libuše and would present and emphasise aspects of his nation’s history which he was unable to cover in his opera.

Ma Vlast (My Country). Cycle of 6 symphonic poems by Smetana, comp. 1874 – 9 . They are:
1. Vyšehrad (The High Citadel),
2. Vltava (River Moldau),
3. Šárka (leader of Bohem. Amazons),
4. Z Českych Luhů a Hájů (From Bohemia's Meadows and Forests),
5. Tabor (stronghold of the Hussites),
6. Bláník (Valhalla of the Hussite heroes: a mountain in S. Bohemia).


The First Movement: Vyšehrad
Vyšehrad is located in the city of Prague, in the Czech Republic. It is a mighty fortress cliff over the Vltava River (which is the subject of the second tone poem). It is one of the most important historical places in Prague, is a storied place and a seat of the first King of Bohemia in the 11th century.



The first symphonic poem, Vyšehrad, is very closely linked with Libuše both thematically and also in its general character. It is primarily concerned with prophesies of the nation’s future by seers in the historic fortress of Prague, Vyšehrad, where Libuše reigned with her consort.

This work is a solemn mediation on the citadel’s past glories and is imbued with regret for its present ruined condition. It opens with a harp solo evoking the bard, Lumir, who sings of the chivalrous past and the music then rises in splendor to conjure up the castle in its former state full of the bustle of activity, gleaming armour, war cries and celebration of victory. In an elegiac epilogue the strains of the harp are heard again. The motif in the first movement is repeated in the following three and at the very end also.

And if you have not (yet) acquired a copy of Kubleik's 1990 recording with the fantastic Czech Philharmonic Orchestra here is a taster to whet your appetite:

Vyšehrad Part 1 and 2

[Seán]

It is easy to overlook the fact that these six poems were written during a most unhappy period of Smetana’s life. The first four were composed when he was being reviled by the critics and while he was vainly seeking a cure for his total deafness. The last two were written when he had become resigned to his fate, but while he was being shabbily treated by the Theatre Association. Nevertheless he found solace in composing these national compositions, which breathe such a remarkable optimistic spirit. Smetana had the satisfaction of witnessing the very successful first performance of the entire cycle conducted by Adolf Cech on 5th November 1882.


The Second Movement – Vltava (River Moldau)

This is a gorgeous work, it is probably the most popular of the six poems. The splendid and evocative melody which runs through this composition, just as the river Moldau runs through the Bohemian countryside is derived from a Swedish folksong and tells the story of the rise of the river from two small spring waters in the Soumova Mountans of Southern Bohemia and its passage through the countryside, it is a classic essay in musical illustration





The poem starts with bubbling figures on flutes and clarinets painting a picture of the two mountain streams. The river passes through a forest from which we hear the sound of a hunt, past a rustic wedding dance (in the form of a polka), it runs over rocks and the Rapids of St John above Prague. The climax comes with the river flowing into the city itself past Vyšehrad. This is the point at which the opening theme from the first symphonic poem returns in triumph.

and here is the spine tingling performance by the CPO:

[Jared]

^^ thank you Sean.... that was a very enjoyable read. I have my Kubelik 'Ma Vlast' to hand, and will be giving it another spin, this week.