Format : Score
Symphonic Poem-In late September 1874 shortly after losing his hearing Smetana started work on â VyÅ¡ehradâ the first symphonic poem in what would become a six-part cycle with the title â Má vlastâ (My Country). It tells the eventful history of this fort in Prague.â VyÅ¡ehradâ was published by Urbánek together with â Vltavaâ (The Moldau) the next part in the cycle in a version for piano duet in December 1879. The full score and parts proofread by the composer followed in February 1880. Hugh Macdonald has corrected many errors in this first edition. He draws on the autograph and first print of the orchestral version and also refers to the autograph and printed piano duet version.In late September 1874 shortly after losing his hearing Smetana started work on â VyÅ¡ehradâ the first symphonic poem in what would become a six-part cycle with the title â Má vlastâ (My Country). It tells the eventful history of this fort in Prague.â VyÅ¡ehradâ was published by Urbánek together with â Vltavaâ (The Moldau) the next part in the cycle in a version for piano duet in December 1879. The full score and parts proofread by the composer followed in February 1880. Hugh Macdonald has corrected many errors in this first edition. He draws on the autograph and first print of the orchestral version and also refers to the autograph and printed piano duet version.
SKU: BR.EOS-20472-00
Today, it is hard to believe that Bedrich Smetana kept receiving rejections when he tried to get his enormously popular Moldau printed.
ISBN 9790004780008. 10 x 12.5 inches.
What is also amazing is that the first text-critical edition prepared by the Czech Smetana expert Milan Pospisil in 1999, which had entailed an exhaustive evaluation of the sources and been given a full text-critical editorial treatment as a Eulenburg study score, had no resonance of any kind among performers since no performance material had been published. After 15 years, Pospisils edition is finally being completed in a manner suitable for practice: with a conducting score and orchestral parts which will ensure that all future performances are based on a musical text that is as reliable as can be.
The work depicts the course of the river Vltava, beginning with its first two sources, the cold and warm Vltava, and the confluence of the two streams that join to form a single river; then the course of the Vltava through forests and meadows, and through open countryside where a peasant wedding is being celebrated; water-sprites dance by the light of the moon; on the nearby cliffs castles, mansions and ruins rise proudly into the air; the Vltava eddies in the St John's Rapids, then flows in a broad stream as it continues its course towards Prague, where the Vysehrad appears, before the river finally disappears into the distance as it flows majestically into the Elbe.Vltava (The Moldau), Smetana's best-known and most frequently performed orchestral work, was written between 19 November and 8 December 1874, at a time when Smetana was already completely deaf. The world premiere took place in Prague on 4 April 1875, but the score was not published until 1880.