Bedřich Smetana: Črty, op. 5
Antonín Dvořák: Poetic moods, op. 85 – selection
Josef Suk: Summer impressions, op. 22b
Luboš Fišer: Piano Sonata No. 4
Leoš Janáček: In the mists
A very substantial part of the work of Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) belongs to the piano. At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, the young composer wrote a total of 24 pieces - popular memorial tickets at the time. He also published these gradually, with two quatrains published in 1858 under the title Skizzen (named in Czech as Črty), op. 4 and 5 and dedicated them to the pianist and composer Clara Schumann. Traits, Op. 5 brings four compositions, the most famous of which is probably the one with the poetic name Přívětivá krajina.
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) composed the piano Poetic Moods in 1889. It is the composer's most extensive and compositionally elaborate piano cycle. In the same year, the composition was published by the Berlin publishing house Simrock and immediately became a popular work in an international context.
Summer Impressions was composed by Josef Suk (1870–1935) in the happiest period of his life. With the Czech Quartet as second player, he conquered the world, composed, and enjoyed the birth of his son Josef together with his beloved wife Otylka. This happy period soon ended with the death of his father-in-law, Antonín Dvořák, and shortly thereafter, Otylka as well. Summer impressions stylistically follow the composition of Spring. The three compositions depicting three summer images with music, V poledne, Hra dětí and Večerní knálda, belong to Suk's optimistically tuned lyrical statements.
Luboš Fišer (1935–1999) ranks among our most played composers. In his extensive work, we can find compositions of various character in the field of orchestral work, as well as vocal and chamber works. He is also the unmissable author of a number of film and television scores. His work for piano is fundamental, in which eight sonatas form the central line. Piano Sonata No. 4 was created in 1962 under the impression of the death of Fišer's friend, the pianist Antonín Jemelík. It is inspired by the last composition Jemelík studied, Alexander Scriabin's Tenth Sonata. This very emotional piece was premiered in 1965 in the interpretation of Pavel Štěpán.
Janáček completed the piano cycle V mlhách in April 1912. Not long before, in 1910, he moved with his wife and housekeeper to a new house in the garden of the organ school and there, hidden from the world, with broken self-confidence and in a melancholic mood, he composed his last large-scale work for solo piano.
Jiří Zahrádek
