Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884): Hakon Jarl, Op. 16 (rec. 13-Dec-1943)

Bedřich Smetana - Symphonic poems
1 Richard III., Op. 11 (rec. 10-Dec-1943)
2 Hakon Jarl, Op. 16 (rec. 13-Dec-1943)
3 Valdštýnův tábor (Wallenstein's Camp), Op. 14 (rec. 15-Dec-1943)
Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra), conducted by Rafael Kubelík
Transfered from 78rpm shellacks and digitally remastered in SR Studio, Prague, Czech republic, in 2003.
With this trio of composititions (so called "Swedish symphonic poems", all of them dating from between 1856 and 1861, the period he spent in Sweden), Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) made his first artistic statement - and an unequivocally successful one, to be sure - of allegiance to the neo-romantic school of programming music: more precisely, he embraced its line which had been defined and practically demonstrated on his compositional output since the late 1840's and early 1850's by Ferenc Liszt. For his part, the young Smetana genuinely fell for the idea of programming music upon his meeting Liszt in person. In October 1856 Smetana paid his 1st visit to Göteborg (Gothenburg), carrying in his luggage Liszt's symphonic poems, and most likely also a copy of the first volume of a Prague edition of Shakespeare's plays, incidentally containing Richard III - all of which he subjected to detailed study.