Download Czech classical music

Czech classical music
Bedřich Smetana
Otakar Ševčík
Antonín Dvořák
Josef Mysliveček
Antonín Dvořák
19th -20th century
Antonín Dvořák was a Czech composer of late
Romantic period. Antonín was one of the two
most famous Czech composers. Antonín studied
at school for butchers. He loved music and
studied organ school in Prague. Dvořák also
played the viola in the orchestra. He married
Anna Čermáková. They had nine children, but
three died in infancy. Antonín Dvořák was invited
to London and New York in order to conduct his
work. He harvested a huge success. Eventually he
returned to Bohemia where he was very popular.
Dvorak became a professor at Prague
Conservatory. He died at the age of 63.
Composition:
nine symphonies
operas: Rusalka, Čert a Káča, Dimitrij…(total 10 )
concerts and concert compositions ( total 5)
and many others ...
Bedřich Smetana
19th century
Bedrich Smetana is the first Czech composer best
known today. Primarily he is known for the cycle of
symphonic poems like My Country and operas The
Bartered Bride and Libuse. He started playing the
violin at the age of five, but his father had no
understanding for his gift. After finishing primary
school and gymnasium he went to study in London.
There he devoted himself to music. After graduating
he goes to work in Prague, where they lived and
worked as a music teacher. At that time he began
composing his earliest music. He had a great talent.
His works:
•The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, (Braniboři v Čechách)
•The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevěsta, German: Die verkaufte
Braut)
•Dalibor
•Libuše
•My Country (Má vlast)
•From My Life (Z mého života)
•And many more …
Leoš Janáček
19th -20th century
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical
theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was
inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to
create an original, modern musical style. Until
1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic
research and his early musical output was
influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín
Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate his
earlier studies of national folk music in a
modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in
the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904
in Brno.The success of Jenůfa (often called the
"Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916
gave Janáček access to the world's great opera
stages. Janáček's later works are his most
celebrated. They include the symphonic poem
Sinfonietta, the oratorio Glagolitic Mass, the
rhapsody Taras Bulba, string quartets, other
chamber works and operas. He is considered to
rank with Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana,
as one of the most important Czech composers.
Josef Mysliveček
18th century
Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who
contributed to the formation of late
eighteenth-century classicism in music.
Mysliveček provided his younger friend
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant
compositional models in the genres of
symphony, Italian serious opera, and violin
concerto; both Wolfgang and his father
Leopold Mozart considered him an intimate
friend from the time of their first meetings in
Bologna in 1770 until he betrayed their trust
over the promise of an operatic commission
for Wolfgang to be arranged with the
management of the Teatro San Carlo in
Naples. He was close to the Mozart family,
and there are frequent references to him in
the Mozart correspondence.
Otakar Ševčík
Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He
was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his
occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.Ševčík was born in
Horažďovice, Austro-Hungary. He received his first lessons from
his father. He studied under Antonín Bennewitz at the Prague
Conservatory and began his career in 1870 as concertmaster of
the Mozarteum concerts in Salzburg, where he also taught. After
1873, he was concertmaster at the Prague Interim (Provisional)
Theatre and the Komische Oper at the Ring Theatre in Vienna.
From 1875 to 1892 he was professor of violin at the music school
of the Russian Music Society in Kiev, at the same time appearing
frequently as soloist. In 1892 he became head of the violin
department at the Prague Conservatory, where he remained
until 1906. He then taught privately in Písek. In 1909, he became
director of the Violin Department at the Vienna Music Academy,
until 1918, when at the end of World War I his nationality forced
him to leave his position. He returned to the Prague
Conservatory, where he stayed until 1921. He afterwards
travelled in the United States and Great Britain as a teacher. He
died in Písek.
This presentation has been made by
Anna Novotná and Michaela Jetmarová
Police nad Metují
2012