“Mein Vaterland” von Bedrich Smetana

The Charles Bridge over the Vltava River in Prague.Photo: iStock

From the Epoch Times Music Series – For Lovers.

One of the well-known compositions by Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) is his cycle My Country (Czech, My fatherland), composed between 1874 and 1879.

1. 00:00 Vyšehrad (The High Castle) [1874]
2. 15:07 Vltava (Die Moldau) [1874]
3. 28:20 Šárka [1875]
4. 38:22 From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields [1875]
5. 51:07 Camp [1878]
6. 63:55 Blanik [1879]

The editors currently do not know which orchestra made the recording.

My Country (Czech, My fatherland) is a cycle of six compositions and was first performed in Prague in 1882. The best known of these is the play “Die Moldau”. These pieces are traditionally played at the opening of the Prague Music Spring.

the first piece Vyšehradrefers to the history of Prague Castle Vyšehrad – starting from the bard Lumir (with a harp) to collapsing (with a march).

The Moldau, in Czech Vltava, he describes the course of the river, starting at the two sources of the cold and the warm Moldau up to the Elbe.

in the third part, Sárkait is about the Amazon queen Šárka, who has sworn revenge on the male world – and after the wedding she commits murder.

From Czech meadows and groves (deutsch: From Bohemia’s grove and field) takes the listener into Bohemian nature, into the forest and above all into the landscape around Jabkenice, where Smetana was often on site at the time.

Camp is a South Bohemian town and a symbol of the national revival of the Czech Republic in the 19th century. The composition is based on an old Hussite hymn “you who are God’s warriors”.

Blanik is a mountain in which a Czech army of knights, led by St. Wenceslas, sleeps well hidden. According to legend, it will help the country in the worst of times.