Considered a lesser-known gem of the operatic repertoire, Smetana's Dve vdovy ('The Two Widows') is set in a Bohemian country estate in which the contrasting personalities of recently widowed cousins Karolina and Anezka are tested by the attentions of gentleman-farmer Ladislav. Smetana's expert theatrical craftsmanship seamlessly blends Czech dances and choruses with beautiful cavatina-like solos. With the humane warmth of it's chamber-like comedy and deftly transparent orchestration, Smetana created a style of conversational opera in The Two Widows that was much admired by Richard Strauss.

MA VLAST

Smetana's two string quartets could be said to be the first programmatic chamber music pieces ever written. The first quartet is a remarkable work with a very strong connection to Czech musicians. It belongs among the real treasures of Czech chamber music. The main characteristic of the second quartet is it's intensity of musical ideas, as the composer was deaf and close to the end of his life. The Dance of Comedians illustrates the famous era of Smetana �s being considered the Czech national composer. An idiomatic account by one of Czech leading string quartets.

Smetana's Mavlast is one of the most powerful and undoubted cultural values of the Czech people. The work continues to be relevant, since it draws on the ideas about the history and role of the Czech nation conceived by FrantiSek Palacky, presenting a modern European nation in a light that is effective in more that the narrow national context - as exemplified by the history, interpretation, popularity and an incredible number of recordings of the Mavlast cycle from the 30s of the 20th. The new live recording of Smetana's works brings the interpretive view of the youngest generation of conductors based on current methods of interpretation, in an effort to come closer to the original text, as much as possible. Marek Stilec is the conductor of Hradec Kralove Philharmonic Orchestra.

...a consistently enjoyable, honest performance, recorded in deep, spacious sound... Stratas's Marie (I'm using the German forms of the names) is firmly voiced and, as always, she acts intelligently... Kollo is strained on top and deficient in legato, but amiable and believably wily...

-- Ralph V. Lucano, FANFARE [5/1989]

DVOR·K: STRING QUARTET NO 14

DVORÁK: SYMPHONY NO. 9 SMETAN

Magnificently conducted by Krips, with a cast that could hardly be better, headed by Rysanek's impassioned, soaring Mlada and Spiess's virile, heroic yet sensitive Dalibor.

Dalibor is magnificently conducted by Krips who, with the VPO on best form, catches the full lyricism of Smetana's freedom-seeking opera. His cast could hardly be better, headed by Rysanek's impassioned, soaring Mlada and Spiess's virile, heroic yet sensitive Dalibor (oh, how we could do with a tenor of this thrilling calibre today!). Spiess surpasses even the legendary Blachut in the role. Imagine my chagrin then when the edition used heinously omits the hero's Act 3 song of freedom, one of the great passages in the work. Rysanek's younger sister Lotte, sounding uncannily like Leonie, makes much of little as Jitka. Waechter is splendid as the tortured king. The performance is in German, but no matter: this is an exciting set, in spite of the cuts.

-- Gramophone [2/1999]

SOMM Recordings is proud to celebrate the bicentennial of Czech composer, Bedrich Smetana, with world-premiere and never-before-released recordings of George Szell conducting the NBC Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestras. These live performances from the 1940s have been masterfully restored by the critically-acclaimed audio engineer and producer, Lani Spahr. It's impossible to overstate the importance of Smetana to Czech music in particular and musical nationalism in general. He was born on 2 March 1824 in�a small town east of Prague, and he came of age at a time of political upheaval that included the�1848 Prague uprising. It was during this period that he began composing nationalistic music. Throughout his life Smetana was dogged by personal tragedy and professional rejection, which drove him for a time to live and work in Sweden. While there, he composed a series of tone poems inspired by military leaders, including Wallenstein's Camp heard on this disc. But Prague kept pulling him back, and when a drama and opera theatre opened in the city in 1862, Smetana set about essentially creating the style of Czech opera. His resounding success in this endeavour was The Bartered Bride, the overture of which is included on this recording. One of the greatest personal tragedies of Smetana's life was his loss of hearing. By the age of fifty, he was completely deaf. At this time, he was working on a series of six tone poems collected under the title Ma vlast�(My Fatherland), the best known being Vltava�(The Moldau), included here. Despite his affliction, Smetana continued to write prolifically from the heart. His 1876 semi-autobiographical String Quartet No.1 in E minor, From My Life, evokes his youth as an artist, his love of dance in the form of a polka, a tribute to his beloved first wife, and the culmination of a held E natural at a high pitch mimicking the ringing in his ears. The quartet is included on this disc in an orchestration made in 1939 by Hungarian-born conductor George Szell, famously the Music director of The Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 until his death in 1970. On 8 March 1941 Szell conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of his arrangement along with the overture to The Bartered Bride and The Moldau. Having made his debut with the Boston Symphony in 1943, Szell recorded From Bohemia's Fields and Forests from Ma vlast�with them in 1945, and that performance is also featured on this new release. Lani Spahr's previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets�Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018-20) and�Elgar Remastered�(SOMMCd 261-4), as well as two Gramophone Editor's Choice picks:�Elgar from America Vol 3�(ARIADNE 5015-2) for "superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life" and�Bruckner from the Archives�Vol. 1 (ARIADNE 5025-2) for the "high standards achieved here, where expert audio restoration and remastering is by Lani Spahr."

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 51 -

BATERED BRIDE

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 OVERTURE, ET

Within a mere few years, Petr Popelka has established himself as one of the world's most exciting young conductors. Serving as principal conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Symphoniker, he has also appeared as a guest with prominent European and American orchestras, as well as at opera houses worldwide. Popelka does not view Bedrich Smetana's legacy as an obligatory Czech national classic, but rather as an object of love and vital artistic quest. "His ultimate masterpiece, My Country, should be approached a bit like an opera, as a great story... As a cycle of tone poems based on the theme of the homeland, it is absolutely unique in the history of music. Most significantly, there is not a work written with greater love." Popelka's recording is not just yet another addition to the immense number of recordings of My Country. Bringing to bear his great musicality and acute sense of detail, the conductor and the orchestra have modelled a truly exceptional form. Popelka's album features other germs too. String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, "From My Life", hailing from Smetana's mature period, when the composer was completely deaf, in George Szell's brilliant orchestration. In contrast, Smetana's early music is represented by the Triumphal Symphony, dedicated to the wedding of the 24-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I to Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria, and three "Swedish" Liszt-inspired symphonic poems, based on dramas as immense as Shakespeare's Richard III and Schiller's Wallenstein. The extraordinary album marks the 200th anniversary of Smetana's birth. Lovers of spatial sound will certainly relish streaming My Country in the Dolby Atmos format. Petr Popelka conducts Smetana - with love, deep feeling and sense for detail

Complete Piano Works, vol. 4

Complete Piano Works, vol. 6

Complete Piano Works, vol. 1

Complete Piano Works, vol. 5

Complete Piano Works, vol. 2

Complete Piano Works, vol. 3

Classical Music

Classical Music

The sixth part of the Bed�ich Smetana complete piano works series presents pieces composed in the 1840s, the time of the composer's intensive studies and the Dedicated to various persons (including Kate�ina Kola�ova, Smetana's great love and future wife) are the Stammbuchblatter, lovely commemorative album leaves. Some of the pieces (Romance in B flat major, Woodland Feelings and Impressions) were published immediately, others were revised B. Smetana and published later. Also dating from this period are the composer's first larger virtuoso pieces (Allegro capriccioso, Caprice in G minor) and major work, the cycle Six m sent the autograph to Franz Liszt, who accepted the dedication with pleasure. The nimble hands of the pianist Jitka �echova make ring the sheer virtuosity and engrossing poetics of the young Smetana's piano works.