Bedrich Smetana
FROM THE HOMELAND
Two Duets for Violin and Piano
BÄRENREITER URTEXT
- Urtext edition based on the Study Edition of the Works of Bedrich Smetana, volume XV: Chamber Works
- New preface by Marta Ottlova (Cz./Ger./Eng.)
- Fingerings and bowings in the violin part verified by Ivan Straus
The two duets for violin and piano, published together under the poetic title From the Homeland (1880), were written during the final stages of Bedrich Smetana's (1824-1884) career as a composer. At this time the composer, now deaf, lived in seclusion with his daughter Zofie's family in a gamekeeper's lodge in Jabkenice near Mlada Boleslav, where he moved in 1876. The writing of these duets was instigated by the son of the owner of the estate, Prince Alexander Thurn-Taxis, who himself was a fine violinist; the pieces were first brought out by the Urbanek publishing house in Prague in 1881. In the words of the composer, the duets are "written in a simpler style, intended more for domestic music-making than concert performance, while the latter is certainly possible; the music has a typically national air, but with my own melodies". The notation for the new edition is based on the Study Edition of the Works of Bedrich Smetana, volume XV: Chamber Works.
BA 9526, ISMN 979-0-2601-0431-0, 32/8 pages, EUR 13,50 
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