Bohemian composer Bedřich Smetana, one of the primary influences that shaped Czech music, kept composing even after becoming deaf due to illness – and delivered one of his most famous works during ...

More years ago than I care to remember, I first made the acquaintance of Bedrich Smetana and his masterpiece Má Vlast. Smetana wrote much more than this, but it's become something of a signature tune.

It was 195 years ago today that Bedřich Smetana was born, in a part of the world that would become, for most of the 20th century, Czechoslovakia. Smetana blazed a trail, a partisan of the polka, a ...

Smetana's reputation primarily rests on his operas, orchestral works and chamber music, yet he also wrote prolifically for the piano, both in his early years as a concert virtuoso and late in life ...

Smetana / Dvorak / Suk Works for violin and piano Josef Suk (violin), Alfred Holocek (piano). Supraphon SU 37772 To celebrate his 75th birthday, the Czech violin virtuoso Josef Suk - grandson of the ...

Marenka sings a far different duet in Act Two, seducing the hapless Vasek (Ales Voracek) without letting him know who she really is. Bedrich Smetana wrote music so clearly rooted in his Czech homeland ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Once a decade there is a Year of Czech Music that reaches out from the Czech Republic to audiences around the ...

Prokofiev was adept at recycling good ideas. His Symphony No. 3 is linked thematically to the opera The Fiery Angel, and the less abrasive No 4 shares some ideas with the ballet The Prodigal Son. The ...

Recently, out of the blue, I received a fascinating communique from a trustee of the Dvorak Society. It was one of those intriguing moments that we all have where, instead of just opening the envelope ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of composers.