With "Má vlast" on European tour
»A story well told turns ears into eyes.« Together with our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša, on our tour we will be leafing through the most famous musical picture-book of our Bohemian homeland: the cycle »Má vlast (My Fatherland)« is a national epic written by Smetana, whose life was full of struggle, suffering and pain. He experienced the greatest possible blow to a musician, going completely deaf. Desperate, he wrote that he could »hear neither speaking nor playing nor singing«: »The internal mechanism – this marvellous claviature of our internal organism – is impaired, out of tune, the hammers are jammed, and no tuner has hitherto been able to repair the keyboard.« After losing his hearing, he was no longer able to give concerts but could still compose, as he was able to imagine the »notes in his mind« and hear them »internally, as if in a dream«. Despite his cruel lot, he thus conjured up the legend-filled history of his people in »Má vlast« in a fascinating manner. The individual scenes of these six »symphonic tales« take vivid shape before the audience’s eyes: the memory of the royal castle Vyšehrad’s glorious past, sung of by a minstrel, the rustling of the Bohemian forests and the moving beauty of the open countryside. Legendary characters are brought to life: the fierce Amazon Šárka, the brave Hussites and the army of knights led by St. Wenceslas slumbering in the legendary mountain Blaník. The Vltava flows freely from its mountain source, past mermaids dancing in the silent moonlit night and a country wedding, then on to the towers and bridges of Prague – before becoming lost in the lowland plains. This masterpiece by Smetana truly »turns ears into eyes«!
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