Latest stories
-
Jakub Hrůša on Smetana's Libuše
28th Oct 2026
To mark a new recording of his compatriot's patriotic opera, released last month on Supraphon and starring Kateřina Kněžíková in the title-role, the Czech conductor discusses how the piece fits into Smetana’s overall operatic output, why it isn’t performed more abroad, and how its nationalistic spirit fed into the composer’s best-known orchestral work, Má vlast.
Featured product
Smetana: Libuše
Kateřina Kněžíková (Libuše), Adam Plachetka (Přemysl), Alžběta Poláčková (Krasava), Martin Bárta (Chrudoš), Jan Šťáva (Lutobor), Richard Samek (Šťáhlav), Jiří Brückler (Radovan), Václava Krejčí Housková (Radmila), Czech Philharmonic, Jakub Hrůša
More products from this article -
Trio Bohémo on their debut recording of Smetana and Schubert
16th Dec 2024
The trio's members discuss the two composers featured on their critically acclaimed debut recording.
-
Kateřina Kněžíková on Strauss and Janáček
7th Oct 2024
The Czech soprano discusses her new recording of the 'Vier letzte Lieder' with her friend Jakub Hrůša, and reflects on her recent transition into more dramatic repertoire - beginning with Káťa Kabanová at Glyndebourne in 2021.
-
Smetana's Complete Operas on Supraphon
16th Sep 2024
Our guest-contributor Rob Cowan explores Supraphon's complete edition of the Czech composer's eight finished operas plus the fragment Viola - made in Prague and Brno between 1960 and 1983, the recordings were reissued in July to mark the bicentenary of Smetana's birth.
-
Smetana and Schubert from Trio Bohémo
23rd Aug 2024
The award-winning young Czech piano trio makes an assured, eloquent debut on Supraphon with Smetana's sole work in the genre and Schubert's late Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat.
-
Bedřich Smetana
2nd Mar 2024
A selection of some of the best recordings of music by the great Czech Romantic composer - best known for his stirring pictorial tone poem Má vlast and opera The Bartered Bride.
-
Smetana from the Pavel Haas Quartet
13th Apr 2015
James listens to the Pavel Haas Quartet's new disc of Smetana's String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2.
Featured product
Smetana: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Pavel Haas Quartet
-
Two legendary performances
19th Dec 2011
Rostropovich’s legendary account of the Dvorak Cello Concerto from the 1968 Proms, and Václav Talich’s emotionally-charged 1939 performance of Smetana’s Má Vlast, given at the National Theatre in Prague shortly after the Nazis entered the city.
