My Homeland Smetana
Overview
Ahead of WNO Orchestra’s appearance at the prestigious Prague Spring Festival in 2023, they pay tribute to the father of Czech music, Bedřich Smetana’s at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.
Smetana Má Vlast
Ahead of WNO Orchestra’s appearance at the prestigious Prague Spring Festival in 2023, they pay tribute to the father of Czech music, Bedřich Smetana’s at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.
Composed between 1874-1879, Smetana’s Má Vlast is a collection of six sparkling musical portraits that depict the landscape, history, and myths of the composer’s homeland, known then as Bohemia.
From its first ripple as a small mountain spring, follow the Moldau River as it rolls through the Bohemian Forest where it encounters a hunt, a wedding party and even some water nymphs. Experience the tumultuous dissonance of the St John’s Rapids to the city of Prague, where the piece was first performed in November 1882.
Who better to conduct this nationalistic programme than WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus, who he himself was born in the Czech Republic.
Supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
Works by Czech composers Dvořák and Janáček are performed alongside masterpieces by Britten and Wagner this Autumn.
Good to know
Presented as part of the Cardiff Classical Series