2 「わが祖国」スメタナ♪

1824年3月2日は、チェコの作曲家スメタナの生まれた日♪

ベドジフ・スメタナは、ボヘミアの都市リトミシュルで生まれた。父フランチシェックは、ビール醸造会社を経営していた。フランチシェックは若い頃にヴァイオリンを習っていて、時折友人たちと弦楽四重奏を楽しんでいた。スメタナもこれに参加し、やがてピアノを習って上達。６歳で開いたピアノ演奏会は大好評を博したという♪

1848年、スメタナはフランツ・リストに手紙を書き、ピアノ曲「6つの性格的な小品」の献呈と、それを出版社に薦めてもらうように頼んでいる。リストは献呈を受け、出版社を見つける約束を果たした。

プラハのヴルタヴァ川の河畔にあるスメタナ・ミュージアム

なかなか評価されずに、晩年に至るが、1882年に行われた、名曲「わが祖国」の初演では、誰もが立ちあがり鳴り止まない喝采の嵐が6つの楽章ごとに繰り返された♪　最終楽章が終わっても、それに気付く者はなく、熱狂した群衆の喝采がいつまでも鳴り響いたという♪

Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land.


By the end of 1874, Smetana had become completely deaf but, freed from his theatre duties and the related controversies, he began a period of sustained composition that continued for almost the rest of his life. His contributions to Czech music were increasingly recognised and honoured, but a mental collapse early in 1884 led to his incarceration in an asylum and his subsequent death. Smetana's reputation as the founding father of Czech music has endured in his native country, where advocates have raised his status above that of his contemporaries and successors. However, relatively few of Smetana's works are in the international repertory, and most foreign commentators tend to regard Antonín Dvořák as a more significant Czech composer.