Smetana: Ma Vlast

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Bedrich Smetana (1824 - 1884)Má Vlast / My Country / Mein Vateriand / Ma PatrieI. VysehradLento - Largo maestoso - Grandloso poco largamente Allegro vivo me non agitato - Lento me non troppoII. Vltava (Moidau)Allegro comodo non agitato(The first source of the Moidau - The second source - Woods; Hunt) L'istesso tempo me moderato (Peasant Wedding) -L'istesso tempo (Moonlight; Nymphs' Roundelay) Tempo I (Rapids of St. John) -Più moto (The Moidau flows broadly onward; Vysehrad)III. SárkaAllegro con fuoco me non agitato - Più moderato assai Moderato me con calore - Moderato - Molto vivo - Più vivoIV. Z cesych luhu a háju (From Bohemia's Woods and Fields)Molto moderato - Allegro poco vivo, me non troppo -Allegro (Quasi Polka) - Tempo I - Allegro - PrestoV. TáborLento - Grandioso - Molto vivace - Lento - Molto vivace Lento maestoso - Più animatoVI. BlaníkAllegro moderato - Andante non troppo - Più allegro me non molto Tempo di marcia - Grandioso - Tempo I - Largamente maestoso Grandisoso meno - Allegro - VivaceBedrich Smetana is a figure of the greatest importance in the development of Czech music, creating and inspiring a synthesis of native tradition and the classical forms of music in which he had been trained. Born in 1824, the eleventh child and the first son to survive infancy of a brewer who had profited from the thirst of Napoleon's troops and had later become brewer to Count Wallenstein, he showed early promise as a pianist and violinist and wrote his first compositions at the age of nine.Smetana's father was a keen amateur musician, a violinist, and was able to teach his son. There was, however, a period of some eight years during which Smetana had little professional musical training, while attending schools in various provincial towns. In 1838, however, he persuaded his father to allow him to study in Prague and there took the opportunity to devote himself to music rather than to anything else. This happy state of affairs continued only for a year, after which he was despatched to undergo more rigorous schooling under an uncle's supervision at Plzeh (Pilsen). Here he found scope for his abilities in playing for dances at social gatherings and pleasure in meeting again Katerina Koldfovi, 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 employment as piano teacher to the family of Count Thun. 1848 was a year of nationalist disturbance in Europe. Smetana started a music school, but the political events of the time engaged his sympathies and he was to remain deeply committed to ideas of Czech nationalism, although his own first language remained German. After his marriage he was employed as a teacher and pianist to the former Emperor Ferdinand V, the retarded heir to the Habsburg throne. These years, however, brought various difficulties and disappointments, with t