Smetana: Orchestral Works (Remastered 2024)

Featuring

George Szell
NBC Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Bedřich Smetana

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Recording & Production

This album includes the world premiere performance and recording of George Szell's orchestration of Smetana's String Quartet No.1 'From My Life', which he conducted with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1941.

Performer Biography

George Szell, the conductor on this album, was invited by Arturo Toscanini to conduct his NBC Symphony Orchestra after Toscanini was impressed by the improvement of the Residentie Orchestra under Szell's direction.

Composer Biography

Smetana moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, where he quickly became a national hero, opening a music school and conducting the Gothenburg Society for Classical Choral Music.

Composition History

Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride, which eventually sealed his international reputation, initially met with critical failure at its 1866 premiere.

Composer Biography

Bedřich Smetana, the composer, initially aimed to be a virtuoso pianist like Liszt and a composer like Mozart, despite being self-taught.

Composition History

Smetana's first mature work, the Piano Trio in G minor, was composed during a period of deep despair following the deaths of three of his daughters.

Composer Biography

Despite becoming totally deaf in 1874, Smetana continued to compose, completing his career-crowning work Má Vlast (My Fatherland) and his semi-autobiographical String Quartet No.1 'From My Life'.