Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 10 (1930-07)

July, 1930 The Phonograph Monthly Review 329 Bedrich Smetana's Symphonic Poems By DR. J. E. S. VOJAN The first complete recording of "Ma Vlast” I N October 1856 Smetana left his home for five years. The Philharmonic Society in Goete- borg, Sweden, asked the famous piano vir- tuoso Alexander Dreyschock to become its direc- tor, but Dreyschock recommended Bedrich Smetana, and so the Bohemian composer who was 32 years of age at that time went to Scandinavia. The first three symphonic poems composed by Smetana were written there. They are entirely in the spirit of the young German school. Smet- ana’s visit at Weimar (September 3-7, 1857) explains why these poems follow so closely the example of Liszt’s symphonic poems. The first, “Richard III,” was finished on July 17, 1858. It depicts musically the mental struggles of the Shakespearean hero, entirely in Liszt’s style. The second, “Wallenstein’s Camp,” written at the end of 1858, is a vivid description of the tempes- tuous soldier life as depicted in Schiller’s trilogy. The third, “Hakon Jarl,” finished at Goeteborg on March 24, 1861, is built upon two motives, one of an organ character, the other in ballad mood, accompanied by passages for the harps. The poem is a musical description of the great struggle between the national hero Hakon Jarl, a pagan, and a king Olaf, a Christian, but a week and immoral ruler. “The episode of my life at Goeteborg from Oc- tober 1856 to May 1861 is closed, it belongs to the past and a new way opens before me,” wrote Smetana himself after his return to Bohemia, and he was right. The Austrian absolutism was crushed by the defeats in Italy, the Vienna government reluc- tantly but definitely returned to constitutional life, all the nationalities of the monarchy breathed freely again, and the Bohemian nation started on the last section of its journev to in- dependence which ended on October 28, 1918 and was prophetically proclaimed by Smetana in his cycle of symphonic poems “My Country.” H. E. Krehbiel wrote to me twenty years ago: “Editorial Room of the Tribune, New York. May 15th, 1909.—If I were asked who, of all the heads of National Schools of Music—was most entitled to be honored by a monument in this country, I, putting aside my personal friendship, admiration and love for Dvorak and Tchaikowski, should un- hesitatingly reply “SMETANA.” To the Czechs he means all that any great nationalist can mean to a patriotic race; but to all lovers of the great and good and pure in music he means more than any composer of our day since Wagner and Brahms.” These words of Krehbiel come al- ways to my mind whenever I cudgel my brains about the enigma why here in the United States only the second of the six “My Country” poems is so often played and even recorded and why the other five poems are neglected. Smetana’s “My Country (Ma Vlast)” is a composition unparalleled in world’s musical his- tory. It is not only the apex of Smetana’s crea- tion, it is also and mainly the most magnificent bequest left to any nation by her composer. It is further the most heroic personal victory: on the day when he became deaf, October 20, 1874, Smetana sketched the majestic motiv of Vysheh- rad which forms the basis of the first poem, ap- pears at the end of the second poem “Vltava” when the river comes to Prague, and returns in the sixth poem to close the cycle. The annotation at the end of the score of the first poem “Writ- ten in condition of ear-disease” and the tragic note at the end of the Vltava score “Being en- tirely deaf” tell the entire story. All six poems were written by a deaf composer who never heard them. Only once was the Fate merciful to Smetana: on November 5, 1882, the cycle “Ma Vlast” was performed for the first time in its entirety in Prague. This day and the 100th per- formance of “The Bartered Bride” on May 5, 1882, were the happiest days in Smetana’s life. He became the centre of ovations which a nation bestows only upon its greatest men. He did not hear the applause and shouting, but he saw the waving handerchiefs of the standing audience and the multitude of wreaths. But after these happy days the tragedy proceeded precipitately. On May 12, 1884 Smetana died in the darkness of insanity caused by his long physical sufferings and psychical over-exertion. The entire cycle “My Country” has just been recorded by the Gramophone Co. (Czechoslova- kia) Ltd., Prague, AN 386-395, on ten 12 inch records. The first and last poems are in four parts, all other poems in three parts, the record- ing is without the slightest cut and very good. The poems were played by the Bohemian Philhar- monic Orchestra of Prague, F. Talich, a profes- sor of the State Conservatory and conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting. In my estimation the last two poems form the climax of Talich’s reading of the score. The first poem, “Vyshehrad,” finished Nov. 18, 1874 and produced for the first time Jan. 14,1875, Ludwig Slansky conducting, is the most noble and most Smetanian poem of the cycle. It be- gins with the Vyshehrad theme played by the harp: the composer transferred to the pagan days of Prague, one thousand years ago, hears the lyre of a bard. Vyshehrad is a rock rising above the Vltava river at the southern end of the city of Prague. At its top for several cen- turies was the superb seat of princes and kings