Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Talich Václav: Má Vlast - CD

Václav Talich became the director of the Czech Philharmonic in 1919 and thus began an era of unprecedented rise and success. Under Talich and his successors Rafael Kubelík and Karel Ančerl, the orchestra rose to the position of one of the best in Europe. During the bleak years of the Second World War, Talich often performed Smetana's Ma Vlast and Dvořák's Slavonic Dances in Prague and throughout Bohemia as an expression of great personal courage and national pride. In 1929 Talich made the first complete recording of Ma Vlast. The performance still stands as a yardstick against which to measure others, and we are pleased to hear it today on CD in a transfer that approximates the age of the original recording.

My Country is a cycle of six symphonic poems s non-musical themes Czech composer Bedřich Smetanainspired by Czech history, legends and the landscape. The individual parts of My Country are Vysehrad, Vltava, Sarka, From the Czech meadows and groves, Camp a Blaník. It is Smetana's culminating work, written in the years 1874 to 1879when he was already completely Deaf.
Smetana began composing the first piece of the cycle - Vyšehrad - at the end of September 1874, when he had not yet lost his hearing completely, but during October he lost the last remnants of it. He completed the work on 1 November, already completely deaf, without the loss of hearing, a disheartening event for Smetana, having any effect on his work. By the end of 1874 he had composed Vltava, and two more poems the following year. Busy working on other works, Smetana abandoned the creation of symphonic poems with Czech national themes for a few years and returned to it only in 1878/79, when the last two compositions Tábor and Blaník, which are closely related, were written. At the time of the first works, Smetana did not yet have a clear idea of the final form of the cycle; he got here only with the creation of the last compositions. The first ensemble performance of the entire cycle took place 5 November 1882 v Prague at Žofín, but the individual symphonic poems were rehearsed and performed earlier.
The work was created during the reverberations of the Czech National Revival, and although it was initially not fully accepted by part of the Czech public, it gradually became one of the top works of Czech classical music. My Country was the first ever recording she made Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at phonograph record. It is performed annually on 12 May, the anniversary of Smetana's death, as the first opening work at a classical music festival Prague Spring and on 28 October, Czech Statehood Day.

Playlist

SMETANA, Bedřich (1824-1884)
My Country
Vyšehrad / Vltava / Šárka / From Czech meadows and groves / Tábor / Blaník