2024-07-03 03:36:20
This yr’s Smetana Litomyšle is the most important within the historical past of the pageant. In honor of the two hundredth anniversary of Bedřich Smetana’s start, he performs not solely the composer’s full operas, but in addition much less carried out compositions. Amongst them is the Triumphal Symphony in E main, which was carried out on the Sunday live performance. He has a sophisticated destiny, not solely as a result of the work devoted to Emperor Francis Joseph I prevented later interpretations of Smetana as a nationwide creator.
The Smetanova Litomyšl pageant began after the Second World Struggle. Zdeněk Nejedlý, the Minister of Tradition on the time and even reckless propagator of Smetana’s cult, instigated the creation of a number of days of celebrations of the one hundred and twenty fifth anniversary of the composer’s start in his hometown. They took over within the following years and step by step grew.
The primary yr in 1949, in accordance with Nejedlý’s ideological idea, was held underneath the motto “Smetana lidu – lid Smetanovi” and along with the Prague Nationwide Theater, native volunteers took half in it, for instance, with a play by one other Nejdelý favourite, Alois Jirásk, in regards to the Litomyšl persona MD Rettigová.
The modern, usually collective occasion carried by the cult of “progressive personalities of our previous” has since developed into one of many largest Czech classical music reveals, the place opera ensembles, orchestral and chamber ensembles, in addition to European-level soloists collect. This yr, essentially the most intensive Litomyšl celebration of Bedřich Smetana was ready by the long-time creative director of the pageant, Vojtěch Stříteský, on the event of the Yr of Czech Music. The title covers a cultural occasion commemorating vital anniversaries of musical personalities each ten years.
The Sunday live performance additionally match into the various dramaturgy, which doesn’t rely solely on well-known works and names. As soon as once more, it was held within the pageant corridor, i.e. in a hockey stadium tailored for live performance use as an alternative to the reconstructed fortress courtyard. The Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra got here with an authentic program underneath the baton of Robert Jindra, the present music director of the Nationwide Theater Opera in Prague.
The night, referred to as Smetana’s Triumphal and Bruckner’s Te Deum, was symmetrically devoted in two halves to the secular and sacred music of this yr’s celebrants Bedřich Smetana, Vilém Blodek, Antonín Dvořák and Anton Bruckner. Particularly, the 2 title tracks, each of a celebratory nature, created a stimulating dialogue between two fully completely different personalities born in the identical yr.
The live performance occurred within the pageant corridor, changing the reconstructed fortress courtyard. | Picture: Ivan Krejza
As an “opener” the hardly ever carried out overture to Vilém Blodek’s solely accomplished opera V studni was performed. The title of the one-act play to the libretto by Karel Sabina, which was created in 1867 and competed with the Bought Bride, is broadly recognized, however its music will not be a lot. Blodek was firmly rooted within the German custom of the Mendelssohn sort, as evidenced by the overture written within the typical type of the time, however full of stunning melodic materials from arias and musical numbers of the opera.
Smetana Triumfální is from a special cask. It’s his solely symphony, written in 1854, and its “triumphantness” was prompted by the celebration of the wedding of Francis Joseph I to Elisabeth of Bavaria. Three of the 4 actions quote Haydn’s Austrian imperial, now German, anthem. Relatively than an expression of the creator’s loyalty to the empire, nonetheless, it’s an expression of the religion that Smetana and different representatives of the modern Czech intelligentsia positioned within the emperor’s deliberate coronation because the Czech king.
Simply as this coronation by no means occurred, nor was Smetana’s dedication to the imperial couple accepted – the composer acquired not even a phrase of response from Vienna concerning his dedication. Later, after the not-so-famous premiere of the symphony at Prague’s Žofín, Smetana rejected the work apart from the scherzo, which doesn’t comprise a quote from the hymn. Towards the tip of his life, nonetheless, he returned to the Triumphal Symphony, revised it, and tried to revive it. At the moment, he drastically shortened it and gave it the epithet “festive”.
Smetana’s reverse
On this revised – and likewise the one printed – kind, the work was carried out on Sunday by the Radio Symphony Orchestra carried out by Robert Jindra. The Triumphal Symphony was performed on the pageant after 25 lengthy years. Paradoxically, she confirmed the impression that the revision didn’t profit her very a lot: the changes break the symphonic kind, don’t give the themes an opportunity to calm down and develop correctly, the shape turns into asymmetrical and fascinating contrasts disappear.
As well as, to additional injury the work and its tone, new cuts have been added to the Litomyšl model. On reflection, they solely show that the younger Smetana wrote his first main orchestral work with a transparent consciousness of what he was writing and the way he ought to write it, and there’s no have to method him with mistrust. Even newer recordings, usually by international ensembles, lean in the direction of the unique, extra convincing model of the symphony. In consequence, the “stripped out” can solely sound just like the horrible trip of an imperial bulldozer.
Though the dependable gamers of the orchestra and the conductor Jindra have been safely accountable for the efficiency, along with the selection of the revised model, the sound system within the pageant corridor might have contributed to the ensuing awkward impression, which favored total excessive dynamics over the stability of orchestral colours. The sound state of affairs improved within the second half of the night, when the massive Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno and 4 solo singers joined the orchestra.
Though Dvořák’s Psalm 149 betrays the unique compositional intent of the festive affiliation piece for the Prague Hlahol fairly than non secular contemplation, the extraordinary qualities of the following Bruckner Te Deum stood out all of the extra.
Anton Bruckner, Smetana’s precise peer, represents the other of the Czech “nationwide composer” in nearly every little thing. A lifelong reclusive, deeply non secular artist, he discovered himself in ecstatic, concentrated symphonies and choral non secular works, reviving the custom of the Renaissance polyphonic artist Giovanni Palestrina. The climactic Te Deum for 4 soloists, choir and orchestra follows the model of his late symphonies, wherein orchestral monumentality goes hand in hand with contemplative interiorization of expression.
The almost half-hour work was excellently carried out by the Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno underneath the course of Petr Fiala and internationally famend soloists: soprano Olga Bezsmertna, mezzo-soprano Václava Krejčí Housková, tenor Pavel Černoch and bassist Tijl Faveyts. Conductor Jindra confirmed that his creative nature, regardless of its universality, is particularly near arched, late romantic arches, on which he can construct a transparent and clear conductor’s idea.
Within the second half of the night, the massive Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno joined the orchestra. | Picture: Ivan Krejza
An inedible wouldn’t be pleased
Whereas Bruckner as a composer moved within the realms of the non secular, Smetana wrote along with private confessions primarily in a political context. That is evidenced by the “controversial” but in addition suggestive Triumphal Symphony, and finally additionally his symphonic poem Má vlast or the operas Dalibor and Libuše.
Smetana was modern each in his terribly fashionable musical language and within the extent to which his profession and work responded to the political and social moods of the time. He usually moved them on in a stimulating method. Zdeněk Nejedlý would most likely not be pleased in regards to the efficiency of his Triumphal Symphony on the Litomyšl pageant. However this work belongs to Smetana of the twenty first century.