Bedrich Smetana
Ma Vlast (Vltava)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Paavo Järvi (Conductor)

Czech music is often associated with a strong sense of nationalism, and Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) is one of the clearest examples of why this is.

Ma Vlast is a series of orchestral poems, illustrating scenes from Bohemian life. Vltava (The Moldau) is by far the most popular of the six seperate poems that make up the completed work.

The Moldau is a river that flows through what is now the Czech Republic. It is represented by vividly pictorial music that cunjures up images of the turbulent waters as they snake their way majestically through the countryside.

By the time Smetana finished writing Ma Vlast, he had completely lost his hearing to tinitus, which produced a high-pitched whining in his ears at all times. This was almost certainly caused by syphilis, a condition common among Romantic composers.

Antonín (Leopold) Dvorák

Carnival Overture

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Paavo Järvi (Conductor)

Dvorak

As a young viola player, Dvorák played in an orchestra directed by Smetana, who became an important influence on the young composer. It is certainly easy to hear some similarities between their compositions.

Dvorák travelled all over Europe and America, and many of his most famous works were written far from his homeland, including the New World symhpony and his cello concerto, both composed while he was teaching in New York.

While he found great inspiration in his travels, homesickness always bought him back. It was while he was at home in Prague that he wrote the Carnival Overture.

It actually forms part of a set of three pieces in celebration of "Nature, Life and Love". This, the second of the three, is a ribald but sensitive tribute to the joy of life. It has become one of Dvorák's most popular pieces.

Leoš Janácek

Diary of One Who Disappeared
Philip Langridge (Tenor)
Jean Rigby (Alto)
Graham Jonson (Piano) 

As a young composer, Leoš Janácek spent one summer walking in the country with Dvorák. While his style of composition is certainly much more in keeping with his later period, Janácek's music owes a lot to his musical mentor.

Like Bartok, Vaughan Williams and many other composers that become associated with a "national school", Janácek dedicated much of his early working life to collecting folk songs, and some these were later incorporated into his music.

While he wrote a fair amount of instrumental music, Janácek was most famous for his operas, and the quality of his vocal writing shines through in the beautifully romantic song cycle.

The Diary of One Who Disappeared is a musical setting of a series of love poems, telling the story of a farmers son who falls in love and runs away with a Gypsy woman.