Vyšehrad and The Moldau from Má Vlast

Bedřich Smetana was born in Litomyšl, Bohemia, on March 2, 1824, and died in Prague on May 12, 1884. He wrote the orchestral cycle My Country in Prague between 1874 and 1879. He wrote Vyšehrad (The High Fortress) first, between September and November 1874. Some of its material dates to 1857. He wrote Vltava (The Moldau) between November 20 and December 10, 1874. The cycle was introduced to the public piecemeal in Prague. The High Fortress was premiered March 14, 1875, and The Moldau the following month, on April 4. The full cycle received its first performance on November 5, 1882, in Prague, under the direction of Adolf Čech.

The score of Má Vlast calls for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, harp, (2 harps in Vyšehrad) and strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses).

We think of Smetana as perfectly embodying the spirit of Czech nationalism in music, one of the most prominent specimens of a nationalist composer from any land; and he himself certainly aspired to such a claim. But it was not his sole ambition to “be Czech,” nor did his compatriots always recognize his credentials as a nationalist composer. Indeed, he was shunned by some as being too German, or too Wagnerian, or not national enough. Others have seen Smetana as the purest exponent of Czech music, often at the expense of Dvořák, whose worldwide fame and international travel diminish (in their view) his attachment to his homeland.

There is a sunny exuberance in Smetana’s music that belies the battles and misfortunes he had to contend with all his life. Critical rejection, political opposition, domestic strife, the deaths of three daughters, petty rivalries, poverty, deafness, and dementia—these all afflicted him at various times, and he died, at 60, a tormented and unhappy man. In due course his music, feeding into the brilliant generation that followed, came to define the Czech style to the wider world, whether the Bohemian peasantry would have recognized it as such or not.

After finishing his opera The Bartered Bride—written for the opening in 1862 in Prague of the Provisional Theatre, a new opera house devoted to Czech-language works—Smetana composed three more operas on Czech themes: the beautiful and too little known Dalibor, and the spectacular pageant opera Libuše, based on the mythical deeds of the Bohemian princess Libuše in ancient times. This eventually found its place as a grand ceremonial work, first played at the opening of the National Theatre in 1881 and to this day reserved by the Czechs for similar national occasions. The third opera was a comedy, The Two Widows. While at work on Libuše, Smetana conceived the idea of a series of orchestral works that proclaimed the greatness of Bohemia’s past without dependence on a text. He had always loved the hills and rivers of Bohemia, having spent his childhood in small towns in the country redolent of history and folk traditions.

Libuše was completed in November 1872, five days after an announcement in the press that Smetana was at work on two symphonic poems, Vyšehrad (The High Castle, which became the opening number of Má Vlast) and Vltava (The Moldau). Libuše is set in the castle of Vyšehrad, and in Act II a theme is introduced that was to play a part in the symphonic poem. He completed the first of the two symphonic poems in November 1874, a month after suffering one of the cruelest blows of his life: he completely lost his hearing. He was subjected to a variety of treatments, all uncomfortable and all useless, and he became overwhelmed with despondency. Nevertheless he continued to compose, and set to work on Vltava almost immediately. By February 1875 he had finished the third in the cycle, Šárka, and From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields was composed that summer. This was provisionally the close of the cycle, and each piece was played in Prague concerts. In the winter of 1878-79 he added two more symphonic poems to the set, Tábor and Blaník. He titled the cycle first “Vlast” (“Country”) and finally “Má Vlast” (“My Country”). In a letter to his publisher, Smetana provided program notes for each of the six symphonic poems in the cycle, so the narrative and illustrative content of the music is not in any doubt. The formal design of each piece was derived from Liszt’s symphonic poems, which Smetana greatly admired, not least for their freedom of content and design. He admired Berlioz and Wagner too, without ever sounding as if he needed to borrow their language.

Vyšehrad (“vyse” = “high”; “hrad” = “fortress”) celebrates the prominent landmark on the southern edge of the city of Prague which commands the river approach and bears a high symbolic meaning in the history of the city and its people. The harps sing a bardic theme (which happens to open on the notes B-flat and E-flat, the composer’s initials, B.S., in German notation) and soon incorporates a shifting motive, both derived from the opera Libuše.

Vltava is named for the river that winds north through the city of Prague embracing the old town in its westerly bend and setting the great castle of Hradčany in powerful relief.

Its German name, still clinging to the music if not to the river, is Moldau. The river’s course starts as a trickle, is joined by a second source, and then grows into a broad stream. It passes through fields and forests to the sound of hunting horns, then to the scene of gaiety and dancing at a village wedding on the bank. Here the music has an irresistible lilt which fades as the river flows on.

Night falls and the moon comes out. Nymphs are seen at the water’s edge and ruined castles appear on the bluffs above. The river tumbles through the St. John’s Rapids, then flows powerfully on to Prague. The Vyšehrad theme, which recurs prominently throughout Má Vlast, is heard as the fortress comes into view. The close suggests the long journey ahead until the river finally joins the Elbe.

Hugh Macdonald

Hugh Macdonald taught music at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford and was Professor of Music at Glasgow and at Washington University in St Louis. His books include those on Scriabin, Berlioz, Beethoven, and Bizet, and was general editor of the 26-volume New Berlioz Edition. His Saint-Saëns and the Stage was published in 2019 by Cambridge University Press.

The first American performance of Vltava (The Moldau) was given in one of Frank Van der Stucken’s Novelty Concerts, at New York’s Steinway Hall on February 2, 1885.

Emil Paur led the first Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of Vysehrad in April 1896. Arthur Nikisch led the first BSO performance of Vltava in November 1890.

The BSO first performed the complete six-movement cycle on August 8, 1969, at Tanglewood, under Karel Ančerl.