Bill Walker
Well-Known Member
I have been familiar with this collection of tone poems for some years and I like it very much.
I believe that Smetana met the composer Liszt and was greatly influenced in his use of tone poems.
The tone poem (also called symphonic poem) is a purely orchestral work in a single movement, which tells a story, or is otherwise intended to represent in sound, or a specific mood.
As Knaresborough has already alluded to....This work is a collection of 6 such tone poems.
For instance...The second and best-known tone poem, Vltava sounds like brooks and streams trickling, bubbling, splashing, and converging into still larger tributaries and at last swelling into the Vtlava itself.
Smetena composed the work as a paean to the Czech nation at the stage in his life when his musical activities had become restricted by the onset of deafness. Nevertheless, however this loss of hearing may have influenced his work as a composer, this symphony can be mesmerizing. Indeed, it often has been so. My Country is not music that people either love or hate; but rather, listeners tend either to like or to love the symphony. There really is little here that's not to like, and there's certainly a lot to love.
This is a great choice and I encourage everyone to carry on listening to this. You will be rewarded.
7/10
I believe that Smetana met the composer Liszt and was greatly influenced in his use of tone poems.
The tone poem (also called symphonic poem) is a purely orchestral work in a single movement, which tells a story, or is otherwise intended to represent in sound, or a specific mood.
As Knaresborough has already alluded to....This work is a collection of 6 such tone poems.
For instance...The second and best-known tone poem, Vltava sounds like brooks and streams trickling, bubbling, splashing, and converging into still larger tributaries and at last swelling into the Vtlava itself.
Smetena composed the work as a paean to the Czech nation at the stage in his life when his musical activities had become restricted by the onset of deafness. Nevertheless, however this loss of hearing may have influenced his work as a composer, this symphony can be mesmerizing. Indeed, it often has been so. My Country is not music that people either love or hate; but rather, listeners tend either to like or to love the symphony. There really is little here that's not to like, and there's certainly a lot to love.
This is a great choice and I encourage everyone to carry on listening to this. You will be rewarded.
7/10
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