Bedrich Smetana - Biography
Bedrich Smetana the great Czech composer was born on March 2nd 1824 in Leitomischl Bohemia and died on May 12th 1884 in Prague Bohemia (now Czech Republic). His musical talent developed at an early age. His father and a local teacher taught him the rudiments of music making and he had a piano recital when he was only six. The Smetana family moved to Hradek Bohemia in 1831 where he received additional musical training. His secondary school training came in Prague where he did poorly in academics but excelled in music. His father transferred him to a school in Plzen with the same results and his father had to reconcile himself to the fact that Smetana was to become a musician. Smetana moved to Prague in 1843 to start his career where he was to obtain theory and advanced piano lessons from a teacher named Proksh at the Prague Conservatory. In order to support himself he gave lessons to an aristocratic family Thun. This arrangement lasted for three and a half years. His attempts to have a career as a pianist failed. In desperation he wrote to the great Franz Liszt without an introduction and dedicated his first opus Characteristic Pieces for Piano to Liszt. Liszt who was a kind man who was always supportive of young talent helped Smetana find a publisher. In 1848 Smetana established a school for piano instruction. He would soon marry one of his schools instructors, a long time friend and fellow student at the Prague Conservatory Katerina Kolarova. He eventually had success as a pianist thought Eastern Europe but the loss of his children in infancy and his wife contracting tuberculosis lead him to seek out a position as a conductor in Sweden in 1856 where he hoped that he and his wife would restart there life. In Sweden he continued to write short piano pieces in the style of a Czech Chopin but also wrote the tone poems for orchestra Richard the Third, Wallenstein’s Camp and Hakon Jarl.
Smetana’s wife health deteriorated in the cold climate and they decided to return to Prague but she died en route in Dresden. About the time of his return to Czechoslovakia Austria finally gave some degree of political autonomy to Bohemia which before then was just another German speaking province of the Austrian Empire. There was a clamoring among ethnic Czech’s to have a Czech Theatre for plays and opera. It was under this national fervor that Smetana wrote his first opera The Brandenburgers of Bohemia in 1863. His next opera was to be the beloved comedy The Bartered Bride (Prodana Nevesta) which was to become the national opera of Czechoslovakia and a worldwide favorite (It opens with a chorus in praise of beer) .Smetana was to become the conductor of the Czech Provisional National Theatre and he composed the fervently nationalistic opera Dalibor. At about the same time he was to write an even more patriotic opera Libuse about a mythical prophetess who was a founder of the Czech nation; Libuse who at the end of the opera declares that no matter what foreign intrigues the Czech people may suffer they will always emerge triumphant. This was of course political dynamite and caused concern for the Austrian authorities and the premiere was put off. His next opera was to be the far less controversial comedy Two Widows. As Smetana reached fifty he started to suffer from significant hearing loss which would lead to total deafness, this no doubt was caused by advanced symptoms of tertiary syphilis.
Smetana married a second time and this marriage was unhappy (the nature of his illness couldn’t have helped). Smetana with his deafness could no longer hold on to his post as a conductor and he started to face severe economic hardship. During this period in he was to write his orchestral masterpiece Ma Vast (My Country) a cycle of six symphonic poems the second of which Vltava (Moldau) which describes the course of the large river that runs through Prague as it goes through the countryside is one of the most popular pieces in the entire orchestral repertoire. The concluding poem Blanik uses the Jan Hus hymn (great medieval Czech warrior) which he already used in Libuse to tremendous effect. In 1876 he wrote his First String Quartet “From my Life” most of which is joyous and wistful but the rollicking polka finale is interrupted by a sustained high E in the first violin part which represents the constant ringing a deaf person hears, the work gently closes from here, Smetana continued writing operas; The Kiss (1877) a comedy, and the drama, Secret (1878).
Smetana was to have one last triumph when Libuse was to have a triumphant premiere in 1881 and though now totally deaf and very frail he was able to attend. Before Smetana was to totally lose his mental functions he was able to write some choruses (he wrote a significant amount of choral music), a very terse and tragic Second String Quartet, the orchestral piece Prague Carnival and a final opera The Devils Wall. Smetana was institutionalized during the final year of his life. He finally died on May 12th of 1884. His death was nationally mourned.
Smetana is the father of modern Czech music. Prior to Smetana there were many Czech composers but most were of German origin or had to change their Czech names to German equivalents, the music was also Germanic Austrian in style and substance. Smetana was the founder of the school that was to give us Dvorak, Janacek, Suk, Fibich etc. Smetana in common with many great composers of nationalist schools is hampered by the fact that his operas were written in a language that isn’t one of the major European ones. Works like Bartered Bride and Libuse that were translated and performed in German had a better chance of it. His music has always had distinguished interpreters like Gustav Mahler, Bruno Walter and his countrymen Vaclav Talich, Karel Ancerl, Rafael Kubelik and Vaclav Neumann. His opera are finally gaining some degree of popularity in English speaking countries.
