Bedřich Smetana - Polkas (András Schiff)

Information

Composer: Bedřich Smetana

• 3 Salon Polkas, Op. 7
• 3 Poetic Polkas, Op. 8
• Memories of Bohemia in the Form of Polkas, Op. 12
• 4 Polkas from the 1850s

András Schiff, piano

Date: 1999/2022

Label: Teldec / Warner Classics

https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/smetana-polkas

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Review

Smetana’s piano music has always counted among my most ardent musical enthusiasms, and I was thrilled to discover a pianist of Andras Schiff’s stature tackling a by-no-means predictable programme of polkas. The best-known pieces outside of the present recital are probably the four that make up the first series of Czech Dances (as recorded by Rudolf Firkusny and others). And yet, to study a polka like the E flat Allegro, tempo rubato from the Souvenirs of Bohemia in the form of Polkas, Op. 13 is to witness a blend of yearning chromaticism typical of the composer, with additional elements drawn from Chopin. The work was composed during Smetana’s Swedish sojourn and suggests aching homesickness expressed in musical terms. Op. 12 is similarly Chopinesque, though the expansive moderato second movement (the longest piece on the programme) has a folk-like melodic slant, harmonic richness and sense of narrative that are entirely Smetana’s own.

The three Salon (or ‘Drawing Room’) Polkas, Op. 7, dedicated to Smetana’s first wife, are among the most charming, especially the first piece. Much of this music was written in the wake of great loss (annotator Graham Melville-Mason suggests that the second of the three Poetic Polkas could reflect the illness and death of Smetana’s second daughter), though its cheerful demeanour spells courage and optimism. Perhaps the most immediately appealing piece on the disc is the delightful A major Polka that in some bizarre way anticipates the Waltz from Bernstein’s 1980 Divertimento.

Schiff’s programme is of varying levels of technical difficulty but the same interpretative virtues are common throughout, i.e. a marked liking for inner voices, a lilt to the rhythms (notably in the second Op. 13 piece), crisp fingerwork and a natural approach to rubato. Comparing Schiff to the excellent Jan Novotny on Supraphon (which programmes the majority of pieces included here) is interesting in that the Hungarian is more prone to employ colouristic effects, the Czech more likely to lay equal stresses on all voices (useful for underlining Smetana’s often sombre harmonies). Both players are masterful, though Schiff’s delicious brand of pianistic sorcery will probably win this music the largest audiences, and Teldec’s recording is marginally the better of the two.

It would be nice to think that Schiff might now offer us the two sets of Czech Dances or, even more desirable, Macbeth and the Witches, Dreams or the extraordinary piano tone-poem At the Ball (which opens like late Liszt, then suddenly bursts into yet another polka). But, in the meantime, the present programme will do very nicely. Strongly recommended.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/aug09/Smetana_Polkas_2564691753.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Nov11/Smetana_polkas_2564672756.htm

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/w/war691753a.php

https://www.amazon.com/Smetana-Polkas-Bedrich/dp/B00001SICQ

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Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. The basic materials from which Smetana fashioned his art, according to Newmarch, were nationalism, realism and romanticism. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed%C5%99ich_Smetana

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András Schiff (born 21 December 1953 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born classical pianist and conductor. Schiff is one of the most renowned interpreters of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. He has received numerous major awards and honors, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in her 2014 Birthday Honours for services to music. Being a outspoken critic of Hungarian government, he stated in 2012 that he would never again set foot in his native country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/András_Schiff

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