“My Homeland is the great culmination of all that Smetana created in the field of instrumental music, it is the great hymn of our glory. […] Today we shall be witnesses of Smetana’s glory, and therefore also witnesses of our own glory, for My homeland, if it were even one work of our master, would be enough to make him one of the greatest musicians of all nations and ages.“

Czech Newspapers, 1882

On 2 July 2021, in the year when the festival was subtitled The Keys to Home, we announced the start of the 200th anniversary of Bedřich Smetana’s birth with a rendering of My Country by identical performers. Now we return to our ‘symphonic gospel’ at its best in the finale of the year’s festival, symbolically subtitled Our Country.

Bedřich Smetana: My Country

cycle of symphonic poems

Vyšehrad • Vltava • Šárka • Z českých luhů a hájů • Tábor • Blaník

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Článek Grand Finale – </br>My Country se nejdříve objevil na Smetanova Litomyšl.

Bedřich Smetana:

The Bartered Bride, overture

Festive Overture in D major, Op. 4

Czech Dances, Book 1: No. 3, Polka in F Major

Hakon Jarl, symphonic poem op. 16

The Bartered Bride, 3rd Act, Skočná, Dance of comedians

Arr.: Tomáš Ille (*1971, arr. 2023), From the Homeland, for violin and orchestra, 2. Andantino

Vltava, symphonic poem (My Country)

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Článek Ceremonial Opening Concert Smetana200 se nejdříve objevil na Smetanova Litomyšl.

“It is a composition typical of Rachmaninoff’s entire compositional style as regards melody, stylisation and structure. The whole piece is singing. The piano and the orchestra are singing, the stream of wide-breathed melody is constantly flowing and developing.”

Ivan Sladký

Bedřich Smetana

Scherzo from Triumphal Symphony in E Major, Op. 6

Sergej V. Rachmaninov

Piano Concerto in C minor No. 2, Op. 18

Antonín Dvořák

Slavonic Rhapsodies, Op. 45

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Článek Ceremonial Opening Concert se nejdříve objevil na Smetanova Litomyšl.

“Mahler must have felt his encounter with the collection The Boy’s Magic Horn as an encounter with his own spiritual home. He found everything that moved his soul, and found it depicted the way he felt it: nature, piety, desire, love, parting, death, ghosts, joyful youth, childhood pranks, and humour…”

Bruno Walter

Bedřich Smetana

Wallenstein’s Camp

a symphonic poem

Gustav Mahler

Des Knaben Wunderhorn

a selection from the song cycle with orchestra accompaniment

1. Trost im Unglück
2. Rheinlegendchen
3. Der Schildwache Nachtlied
4. Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht
5. Lied des Verfolgten im Turm
6. Der Tamboursg’sell
7. Urlicht
8. Verlor’ne Müh’

Antonín Dvořák

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 “New World”

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Článek Ceremonial Opening Concert – Slovak Philharmonic se nejdříve objevil na Smetanova Litomyšl.

“Do you know the feeling when you meet a person with whom you “feel it exactly the same way”, you brutally enjoy what and how they do and you feel that if you do it together, it can entertain and amuse a lot of other people? Well, I’ve now met someone like that, a sixty-head by estimate, and its coordinated co-existence, enthusiasm, passion and art have struck me deeply and permanently. Musically and humanely, an ensemble supremely likeable to all in peace. I ❤️ Police Symphony Orchestra!“

Tomáš Klus

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Článek Grand Finale – Police Symphony Orchestra se nejdříve objevil na Smetanova Litomyšl.