Sunday Classics preview (2): En route to Dvořák, we meet up with the father of Czech music, Bedřich Smetana

by Ken

As you know -- or if you don't, as you're finding out now -- we're hearing the first two movements of Dvořák's American String Quartet in tomorrow's Sunday Classics post, played by what I've said may be, all-around, my all-time favorite quartet. Last night we heard our mystery quartet deliver some of the finest Haydn playing I've heard. Tonight, as we transition toward Dvořák, we're going to hear them play music by Dvořák's elder countryman and inspiration, Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), known as "the father of Czech music"-- though a good part of the fathering was done in Göteborg, Sweden, where he spent a good chunk of his adult life, for economic and political reasons.

Sometimes clichés turn out to be in good measure true, as with the music-appreciation one that says the second half of the 19th century (we can almost use the major uprisings of 1848 as a timeline) was an "age of nationalism," and nowhere more so than in Central and Eastern Europe, as the stirring nationalities long subjugated within the Austro-Hungarian Empire developed a new interest in their own cultures.

In LP days it was a marriage of convenience, Dvořák's American Quartet and Smetana's quartet called (for once by its composer) From My Life. Each fit neatly on one LP side and didn't have an obvious discmate. The ways in which the works are similar and also different make them complement each other beautifully.

Smetana wrote his quartet as a musical autobiography, including the chilling intrusion, in the last movement, of a depiction of the high-pitched sound in his ears that marked the onset of his deafness (which is thought to have become complete by the end of 1874; this quartet was written about 1876) and ultimately, sadly, madness. We're going to hear the two middle movements, Allegro moderato alla polka and Largo sostenuto, played once again by our mystery quartet.

2nd movement, Allegro moderato alla Polka


3rd movement, Largo sostenuto


A much-condensed version of the program of From My Life set out by the composer appears in the score:

This Quartet, written in 1876, has an autobiographical significance as explained by the composer in his letter dated April 12, 1878.

THE FIRST MOVEMENT depicts Smetana's love of Art in his youth, his search for the imaginary, and the premonition of his approaching illness.

THE SECOND MOVEMENT, "Quasi Polka," refers to the carefree days of his youth and his passionate love for dancing at the period when he composed many dances.

THE THIRD MOVEMENT, "Largo Sostenuto," portrays his idyllic love for a young girl who later became his spouse.

THE FOURTH MOVEMENT pictures the composer rejoicing over the recognition attained by Bohemian National Music and its achieved success. A sudden sustained high E indicates the noise in the composer's ears prior to his deafness. Then follows a painful recollection of his youthful days, a ray of hope against hope which gives way to resignation before the inevitable destiny.

The Largo seems to me an exceptionally beautiful piece, but tell me honestly, does it sound like the recollection of the happiness of first love? It's possible that the memory is colored by the reality that by this time not only his first but his second wife had died, and three daughters had died in infancy. (Three survived.) Or it may be that Smetana's life experiences inclined him to a gloomyish disposition. On the bright side, he did in fact recover from the depression embodied in this quartet and despite his deafness had a quite productive decade of composition ahead of him before the even gloomier turn that still lay in store for him.

Before we go, I thought it might be fun to hear these same movements of the Smetana From My Life Quartet in an orchestral version arranged by the estimable conductor George Szell, who was of course a great exponent of the music of his Czech countrymen. Szell's own 1949 recording of his arrangement is included in a terrific Sony two-CD reissueof his classic Epic-label recordings of the Dvořák Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies (and even some more goodies) with the Cleveland Orchestra, which I keep meaning to buy. The fact that Szell never rerecorded his orchestral rendering of the Smetana quartet makes me wonder whether he had complete faith in it. I wish we had a better performance than this rather shapeless oneby Geoffrey Simon and the London Symphony, but we have to work with what we've got:

2nd movement (orchestral version)


3rd movement (orchestral version)



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