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World music CD DVD shop and Classic distribution
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ID: RCD70001 (EAN: 4600383700014) | 1 CD | ADD Released in: 1997
- LABEL:
- Russian Compact Disc
- Collection:
- Czech Historical Recordings
- Subcollection:
- Orchestra
- Composers:
- SMETANA, Bedřich
- Ensembles:
- Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
- Conductors:
- TALICH, Václav
- Other info:
Czech Historical recordings - 1929
A Cycle of Symphonic Poems (Vyšehrad; Vltava; / From Bohemia's Woods and Fields; Tábor; Blaník)
My Country, the monumental cycle of symphonic poems by Bedřich Smetana, is a unique apotheosis of the composer’s love for his motherland. Smetana himself wrote a brief outline of the contents of the cycle’s individual parts. The work, which he dedicated to the city of Prague, was first performed on November 5, 1882. It’s import, most notably in the darkest times for the Czech nation, was perhaps most eloquently expressed in 1939 by the author, Jan Drda: “It is not a poem, it’s a prophecy. A spiritual vision of the beautiful land which has accompanied generation after generation, a message of hope and love harking back to the past and pointing to the future… A land from whose people have arisen such truly prophetic figures as was recently Bedřich Smetana, is indeed invincible.”
| SMETANA, Bedřich (1824-1884) | | | My Country [Má vlast] | | | 1. | No. 1 Vyšehrad (the High Castle) | 15:40 | | | 2. | No. 2 Vltava (Moldau) | 12:18 | | | 3. | No. 3 Šárka | 10:30 | | | 4. | No. 4 Z českých luhů a hájů (From Bohemia's Meadows) | 12:45 | | | 5. | No. 6 Blaník | 12:13 | | | 6. | Blaník | 15:02 | | Vaclav Talich became director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1919, starting an era of unprecedented rise and accomplishment. Under Talich, and his successors Rafael Kubelik and Karel Ancerl, the orchestra rose to a position of being one of the finest in Europe. During the bleak years of World War II Talich often performed Smetana's Ma Vlast and Dvorak's Slavonic Dances in Prague and throughout the Czech lands as a demonstration of great personal courage and national pride. In 1929 Talich made the first complete recording of Ma Vlast. The performance still stands as a benchmark against which to measure others, and we are fortunate to hear it today on CD in a transfer that gives lie to the age of the original recording.
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