Smetana: Fantasy on Czech Songs

There is a great variety of performers, traditions, and composers represented in volume 4 of this pioneering series.

The pianists comprise the well known, the undeservedly neglected, and the tragic. One such is Rosa Tamarkina, a prodigiously talented musician, who died at 30. There is Liza Fuchsova, a brilliant Czech, who can be heard in a rare 1944 HMV disc. Lilly Dymont was recorded in Berlin in 1930, Marie-Thérèse Fourneau in wartime Paris, and Winifred Christie in London in 1921. Of volume 3 (8111217) Gramophone wrote: ‘a fascinating series… and brilliant assembly, which makes you look forward to volume 4.’

The key work on this recording is the cycle of six Dreams. Composed after the on-set of deafness; Smetana had had to stop conducting and turn his attentions back to piano composition. ‘Extinguished Happiness’ has something of the Lisztian virtuosity of earlier works, but the brilliance is tinged with reflective melancholy. ‘Consolation’ which follows owes little to Liszt, rather its restless central section looks forward to the more agitated last symphonic poem of My Country. ‘In the salon’, seems to be looking back to youthful contentment while, ‘Before the Castle’ gazes back much further to an image of the nation’s heroic past. The concluding ‘Festivity of Czech country folk’ encompasses both an affectionate glimpse at rural goings on as well as a certain wry humour. The cycle is an excellent example of the extremes of Smetana’s composing style, and an excellent introduction to his piano music. The transcription of Schubert’s song ‘Der Neugierige’ is a brilliant and heartfelt transformation of Schubert’s work. In the same year, and again very much with Liszt’s example in mind, Smetana composed the Etude in C major; a big-boned work; its energy and the extreme demands of its virtuoso writing single it out as one of his most exciting works for piano. Completing the recording are the four Polkas composed in 1877 that comprise Smetana’s first set of Czech Dances and bring to a climax his lifelong association with this popular dance.