Friedrich Smetana : "Die Moldau" / Karajan / Vienna Philharmonic

Friedrich Smetana -His Music and His Life

 

Friedrich Smetana was born on March 2, 1824 in Leitomischl, Austria and passed away on May 12, 1884 in Prague/CSSR. Smetana was the son of a Bohemian brewer. In Smetana's fatherland once could hear music from any corner. Nevertheless,only at the age of 18, Smetana decided to become a musician. He studied piano lessons at the Prague College of Music. In 1848, he opened his own private music school together with the generous supporter, the German classical composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886).

In 1856, Smetana moved to Goteborg/Sweden, where be became Head of the Philharmonic Association. This has been the first time Smetana started composition experiments, i.e. "Richard III." (1858).

But Smetana moved back to his native land and became a music-critic, columnist and conductor at the national State Opera Prague.

His first opera in 1863 ("The Brandenburgs in Bohemia") became a flop. his second opera "The Bartered Bride"" (1866) was one of Smetana's masterpieces. This opera shows the whole illustrated broadsheet of Bohemian country life together with a deceitful life from the Bohemian folk dance, the Polka, and the musical fury.

Smetana's following operas, i.e. "Libussa" (1872), or "The Kiss" (1876) have been only mediocrity and can be found seldom on stage nowadays.

In 1874, first signs of Smetana's deafness have been reported - mentally illness followed like a lingering fever. Almost unbelievable, that Smetana was able to compose during the following five years his outstanding master piece; a six-symphonies cycle, also known as "classical sound poetry", entitled "Mein Vaterland" (My fatherland). The probably most well known part "The Moldavian River' (Die Moldau) came into being in 1874.

(Stage set for the 1882 production of Smetana's opera "The Bartered Bride").