Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/27/2005, uploaded on 01/23/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

En Bohême, Scène champêtre from Rêves (Dreams)    Bedřich Smetana

For centuries, the educated and affluent classes in Bohemia and Moravia had been mainly German-speaking while Czech culture was the domain of country folk.  Throughout the 19th Century there was an increasing interest and drive to establish the Czech language as the intellectual equal to German and to elevate characteristically Czech culture.  Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) also furthered this cultural and political cause by writing operas on Czech subject matter to be sung in Czech (most famously "The Bartered Bride").  Of his six Rêves (Dreams), the two on today's program refer specifically to Czech country life.  In these pieces, Smetana evokes the spirit of folk music by using polka rhythms and  writing melodies that sound inspired by folk songs (featuring the repetition of one pitch at the beginning of the tune, and frequent shifts between major and minor mode).  The entire set displays a virtuoso pianism in the vein of Franz Liszt.     David Gross

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.