Smetana / Suk / Novak: Piano Trios

Description

Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884): Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 Josef Suk (1874-1935): Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 2 .Elegie Vitezslav Novak (1870-1949): Trio quasi una ballata in D minor, Op. 27 By early 1848 the Habsburg Empire was under threat from within. In March Vienna saw a rising of students and the municipal militia, with the flight of Mettemich to England. There were disturbances elsewhere in Habsburg territories and in October the court was compelled to leave Vienna, to take refuge at Olmütz (Olomouc). In June the revolt had spread to Prague, to be suppressed by the foreign minister, Prince Windischgrätz, but by December the new prime minister, Felix Prince Schwarzenberg, had brought about the abdication of the Emperor Ferdinand I, a ruler who appeared ineffective in these circumstances, and the accession to the throne of the Emperor's eighteen-year-old nephew as Franz Josef I. The reaction was at first one of hope and expectation in Prague, but these hopes were soon to be disappointed. The struggle for cultural and linguistic equality within the Empire continued, bringing successes and reverses, as the century went on, to find its end only in 1918, with the establishment of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, including within its boundaries considerable Slovak, German, Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. Bohemia itself had long provided practical musicians for the rest of Europe, but, in the developing mood of nationalism of the mid-nineteenth century, there was a growing consciousness among Czechs of a new, indigenous cultural identity, drawing inspiration from the Czech language and from folk-music and national traditions. In music Bedfich Smetana is the first figure of major importance in Ibis Czech cultural flowering. Born at Litomysl in north-eastern Bohemia in 1824, he was the eleventh child and the first son to survive infancy of a brewer who bad profited from the thirst of Napoleon's troops and later became brewer to Count Waldstein, whose castle towered over the town. Smetana showed early promise as a pianist and violinist and w rote his first compositions at the age of nine. He was able to acquire something of his musical skill from his father, an enthusiastic amateur violinist. On the latter's retirement in 1835, Smetana was sent to school in Jihlava (Iglau), but it was not until 1838 that he persuaded his father to allow him to continue his general education in Prague, where he was able to give particular attention to music. A year later he was sent to undergo a period of more restricted and rigorous education under the supervision of his uncle at Pizeil (Pilsen). Here, as in Prague, he found a social outlet for his skills as a musician, playing for dances and social gatherings and meeting once again the daughter of earlier family friends, Katerina Kolarova, who in 1849 was to become his first wife. In 1843 he left school and moved to Prague, determined to make a living as a musician and supporting himself by employme