Serenity and joy – those were the emotions that I felt after I had listened several times to Bedrich Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15. Interesting when sou consider that the composer wrote this piece st a moment of incomparable sorrow. “The death of my eldest daughter, an exceptionally talented child, motivated me to compose my Trio in G minor”, he confided many years after the tragedy in a letter to one of his physicians.
All is well. The sun will rise just like any other day and all will be well. There is no need to doubt or to fear. This is the reassuring message I read into Bedrich Smetana’s two sets of “Czech Dances” JB 1:107 and JB 1:114. Very nice piano pieces, and by keeping them short, Smetana reduced them to the essence. Miniature portraits of his country reflecting either traditional dances like the polka or everyday ideas: a hen, a bear, an onion, a parading soldier. He wrote the pieces between 1877 and 1881, at the end of a turbulent career. They have been recorded by the US pianist Garrick Ohlsson.
A few dramatic, frightening opening bars… a prelude to a sad and slow theme. Then, drama, again. And then: melancholy. This string quartet expresses a lot of feelings: distress, a cry for help, a longing for deliverance, a certain bitterness, the memory of past joys and injuries, of youthful lust and glory – time flies and before we realize it, we are confronted with our own finiteness.
The night is about to end, you can already see the proverbial silver lining on the horizon. In a few minutes the sun will rise and another day will begin. It will be up to you to make the best of it, but the majestic beginning of Anton Dvorak’s Symphony No. 2 in B flat, Op. 4 is an excellent force multiplier. The first movement is energetic and energizing and by the second movement you are in full swing. Guaranteed or you will get your money back!