Classical Music | Music for Duo

Bedřich Smetana

The Moldau from Má vlast  Play

Shelest Piano Duo Duo

Recorded on 12/31/2014, uploaded on 05/17/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Аrranged. for piano four hands by composer

The opening of Smetana’s The Moldau (named after the river in the Czech Republic) is perhaps the most perfect depiction of an element of nature in all of Romantic music. From the first measures, one cannot escape imagining the streams forming into a smoothly flowing river. Through this tone poem, the composer takes us on a journey through his beloved fatherland along the Moldau River, which crosses through the entire country as a main artery, portraying scenes such as the hunt, a farm wedding, mermaids in the moonlight, and rapids.

The Moldau is the second in the set of the six symphonic poems titled Má Vlast (My Fatherland), but over the years it became so popular that today it is mostly performed on its own.    Anna and Dmitri Shelest