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SOMM Recordings

Smetana 200

$18.99

Details

Composer
Bedrich Smetana
Artist
NDR Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
Oct 18, 2024
Catalog #
ARIADNE 5032
UPC
758871503228

About

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."

Tracklist 8 tracks

  1. 1 Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride): Overture 06:40
    Track
    1
    Title
    Prodaná nevěsta (The Bartered Bride): Overture
    Duration
    06:40
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  2. 2 Valdštýnuv tábor (Wallensteins Lager, Wallenstein's Camp), Op. 14 14:09
    Track
    2
    Title
    Valdštýnuv tábor (Wallensteins Lager, Wallenstein's Camp), Op. 14
    Duration
    14:09
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  3. 3 Má vlast (My Fatherland): No. 2. Vltava (Moldau) 12:41
    Track
    3
    Title
    Má vlast (My Fatherland): No. 2. Vltava (Moldau)
    Duration
    12:41
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  4. 4 Má vlast (My Fatherland): No. 4. Z českých luhů a hájů (From Bohemia's Woods and Fields) 12:09
    Track
    4
    Title
    Má vlast (My Fatherland): No. 4. Z českých luhů a hájů (From Bohemia's Woods and Fields)
    Duration
    12:09
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    Boston Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  5. 5 I. Allegro vivo appassionato 07:32
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Allegro vivo appassionato
    Duration
    07:32
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  6. 6 II. Alla polka 05:12
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Alla polka
    Duration
    05:12
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  7. 7 III. Largo sostenuto 09:02
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Largo sostenuto
    Duration
    09:02
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell
  8. 8 IV. Vivace - Meno mosso 07:05
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. Vivace - Meno mosso
    Duration
    07:05
    Composer
    Bedřich Smetana
    Ensemble
    NBC Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    George Szell