Special Bedřich Smetana's "My Country" - a symphonic poem to the nation
October 28 is an important holiday in the Czech Republic as the day that the Czechoslovak - and thereby Czech - nation was born out of the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. That moment of independence was the triumph of a hundred-year mission to rebuild a national identity out of a dozen generations of Austrian rule. It is called the Czech National Revival, a cultural movement that re-awoke interest in Czech history, gave a new lease to the Czech language and pushed Czech art, and particularly music, to the forefront of Europe. As we mark the independence of Czechoslovakia, I’d like to take you through one of the greatest musical manifestations of the National Revival, and that is the symphonic cycle Má Vlast, or My Country, by Bedřich Smetana.
Petr Jiříkovský
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