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Bedrich
Smetana
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| Major Czech composer, born 1824, whose ambition even as a child was to be just like Mozart. Thus, it is not surprising to learn that he was already composing music by age eight. He also became a first-class pianist and composed a large number of pieces for the piano; his Czech dances and polkas are often compared with the best of Chopin's. He was influenced early on by the music of Liszt and Berlioz and considered himself a musical avant-garde. Being a sympathizer of the Czech nationalist movement, he was forced by the Austrian repression of the revolution of 1848 to flee Prague for Goteborg, Sweden where he found work directing a concert society. On returning to Prague, he worked towards realizing his dream of a Czech National Theater which was inaugurated in 1862; he became its principal conductor in 1866. By this time an adherent of Wagner, he set about composing a repertory of Czech operas. He composed eight operas all of which are still performed in Czech theaters, although only The Bartered Bride remains in the standard repertoire of today's opera houses. He suddenly turned deaf in 1874 but, like Beethoven, faced his condition with courage. It was in deafness that he composed his cycle of great symphonic poems (My Country), of which perhaps Vltava or Moldau is the best known. His string quartet From My Life is the most popular of his three chamber works. But his physical suffering eventually led to a mental breakdown and, confined in an asylum, he ended his life in 1884. |
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