Smetana B. Vltava (for piano for four hands), Czech Dances / P.Jiříkovský, D.Wiesner piano

Bedřich Smetana - Czech dances I. 13:34

1. Polka F sharp Minor 3:29

2. Polka A Minor 2:52

3. Polka F Major 3:27

4. Polka B flat Major 3:33

Bedřich Smetana - Czech Dances II. 42:09

5. Furiant 5:29

6. Slepička 3:21

7. Oves 4:52

8. Medvěd 3:28

9. Cibulička 4:17

10. Dupák 3:57

11. Hulán 4:48

12. Obkročák 3:12

13. Sousedská 4:10

14. Skočná 4:02

15. Bedřich Smetana - Vltava (for piano for four hands arranged by the composer) 11:48

Total time 67:45

Petr Jiříkovský (5-15) piano, Daniel Wiesner (1-4,15) piano

Smetana composed Czech Dances between 1877 (Part I) and 1879 (Part II). In this unparalleled masterpiece he brought together and connected the two above: Czech folk music and virtuoso piano stylization. Part I. of the Czech Dances is, in its composition technique and overall conception, a follow-up to two previous cycles - salon polkas opus 7, and Poetic Polkas opus 8. Part II. of the Czech Dances is a stylization of the Czech folk songs, which were in the past invisibly connected with dance. It is not by accident that a four-hand arrangement of one of Smetana´s most popular compositions - the symphonic poem Vltava from the work Má vlast (My country) - complements this recording, since Smetana used polka motifs to evoke local color in Vltava. In Smetana´s own four-hands arrangement, the colorful character of orchestra instrumentation has been transformed into a piano composition.

(Studio Matouš)