![]() But given that the composer Ludevít Procházka’s Prague-based Czech-German Chamber Music Society prompted Smetana to write the quartet, Smetana knew from the outset that private thoughts would soon enter the public sphere. The mirror image of the orchestral poems’ extrovert sentiment, Z mého zivota (‘From my life’) is a markedly private work, ‘purposely written for four instruments which, as in a small circle of friends, talk among themselves about what has oppressed me so significantly’. ![]() While completing Má vlast, his public statement on a now deep-seated nationalism, Smetana embarked on a pair of string quartets. Moving almost immediately away from the city, the consequent absence of his theatrical commitments permitted Smetana a final decade of creativity, though not without its costs. While he was at his most celebrated, however, deafness struck in 1874. Hailed by the young adherents of the Revival, his most successful early opera The Bartered Bride was to be its comic calling card, while his grand, quasi-Wagnerian opera Dalibor was chosen to commemorate the founding stone of the National Theatre (which eventually opened in 1881 with the premiere of Smetana’s Libuše). ![]() Melding the Wagnerian principles he held so dear with innate national pride, he created a new brand of Czech opera. By 1866 the assimilation had worked and he was made Musical Director of the (Czech language) Provisional Theatre. Like the majority of citizens (bar remote agricultural workers), Smetana had been educated in German under Austrian rule, so he quickly had to learn Czech and soon did everything in his power to project overt national feelings. He saw that true respect from his peers would only come through fully embracing the culture and language of the Czech National Revival. Smetana flourished, though the promise of employment back in Prague at the new Royal Provincial Czech Theatre prompted fresh patriotic sentiment.Īlthough Smetana had hoped for a prodigal son’s welcome home, he still had to fight for recognition. Sweden’s ready finances provided steady employment, but the country’s second city was markedly provincial in comparison to Prague. Leaving the Bohemian capital, Smetana went in search of glory elsewhere, namely Gothenburg. A self-taught man, Smetana found it an uphill struggle to gain recognition in Prague, despite initial attempts to find favour with his Ceské tance (‘Czech Dances’). At the beginning of his career, Smetana had deep ties with fellow musicians over the border in Leipzig, and with Liszt (who was an early advocate). Yet his relationship with the Czech National Revival had not always been so strong. Even Smetana himself presented such a façade when he wrote to his German publisher that ‘according to my merits and according to my efforts I am a Czech composer and the creator of the Czech style in the branches of dramatic and symphonic music’. Collectively these works give a rare insight into the private music of outwardly nationalist composers.īy the end of his career, Smetana was considered the founding father of Czech musical nationalism. While Smetana’s late works speak nostalgically after the loss of his hearing, Voces intimae is an intense precursor to Sibelius’s tormented fourth symphony, written at a time of profound depression. ![]() Both Bedrich Smetana and Jean Sibelius, neither of whom was daunted by the large scale, embraced the form at specific points of crisis in their lives. Given its smaller scale, it proved to be an eloquent mode of communicating specifically private musical thoughts. Yet it similarly began to draw on more programmatic elements over the course of the nineteenth century. Like the symphony, the genre is adept at presenting and developing abstract musical material. The string quartet has something of a double life. These works give a unique insight into the private musical lives of their composers and are performed by the Dante Quartet with conviction and flawless technique. Voces intimae is an intense precursor to Sibelius’s tormented fourth Symphony, written at a time of profound depression. Interestingly, Smetana and Sibelius, both renowned for their skilful dealing with symphonic forces poignantly turned to the intimacy of the string quartet form at specific points of crisis in their lives. The musical language is adventurous and unusual, speaking movingly of the composer’s loss of his hearing. The turbulent second Quartet in D minor serves as a sequel to the first, continuing Smetana’s life story. Smetana’s Quartet No 1 in E minor is entitled ‘From my life’ and musically chronicles his youth, loves and vocation, culminating with the onset of his deafness. This group, renowned for their inventive interpretations and sensitive articulation, capture perfectly the expressive intensity of these masterpieces. BBC Music Magazine award winners the Dante Quartet return for their third Hyperion recording with the string quartets of Smetana and Sibelius.
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