Bedřich Smetana

EARLY PIANO WORKS

BÄRENREITER URTEXT

• Urtext edition based on the critical edition of Bedřich Smetana’s piano works
• Fingerings verified by the editor
• New preface by Jarmila Gabrielová (Cz./Ger./Eng.)

The next volume of Smetana’s piano works contains three early cycles of pieces dating from 1844–1849. At that time Smetana was studying music theory and composition with Prague teacher Josef Proksch and he, himself, gave private piano lessons for the aristocratic Thun family; he later founded his own music institute. Bagatelles et impromptus was the 20-year-old composer’s first attempt at a cyclical work; the ambitious Six morceaux caractéristiques Op. 1 – looser in form and more demanding in technical aspects – was written around the time Smetana was forming an acquaintance with Liszt, who recommended that this work be published (1851); the occasional piece Hochzeitsszenen [Wedding Scenes] was intended as a wedding gift for one of Smetana’s pupils, Maria Thun-Aehrenthal. These programme cycles are complemented with a set of five polkas written in the composer’s youth which are still impressive to this day. The notation in this edition is based on the critical edition of Bedřich Smetana’s piano works and includes fingerings and pedal markings by pianist Jan Novotný, a specialist in Smetana.

BA 9527, ISMN 979-0-2601-0439-6, 112 pages, price 21.95 EUR     BUY