The Cleveland Orchestra
|
Franz Welser-Möst
conductor
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
“Má vlast” (“My Fatherland”)
Music as a testament to faith in one’s own nation: in his cycle “Má vlast” (“My Country”, Bedrich Smetana celebrated the glory and greatness of his homeland, which had been ruled by the Habsburgs since 1526 and which had yet to attain independence. The cycle’s six symphonic poems evoke the golden age of vanished glory: for example, the famous Vyšehrad Castle in Prague, the throne room of the Czech royal dynasty known as the Premyslids, sumptuous feasts, colorful jousting tournaments, and victorious battles. But Smetana also traces the course of the Vltava River—sonically captured in a folklike melody that is a masterpiece of nationalistic Romanticism—and roams through “Bohemia’s woods and fields.” His music breathes new life into ancient myths and fairy-tales. A quotation from a Hussite chorale hymn gives the work its ideological foundation: “It is on the basis of this melody that the resurrection of the Czech nation, its future happiness and glory, will develop,” declared the composer.
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