Bedřich Smetana
Piano Trio in G minor, op. 15
2. Allegro ma non agitato -- 3. Presto
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), recognized as the first composer to borrow characteristics from the folk music of his Czech homeland into original works, was a leading figure in the Czech Nationalist movement after Austria granted Bohemia political autonomy in 1860. Smetana was instrumental in founding the first theater where operas and plays were presented in the Czech language in 1862, and where his own enduringly popular comic opera, The Bartered Bride, was first produced in 1866. In 1874, over the course of just a few months the composer became completely deaf, but he continued to compose, and that same year he completed his best known work, The Moldau, one of six orchestral tone poems collectively called Má Vlast (“My Country”).
Tragically, between 1854-1856 three of Smetana’s four daughters died, and his beautiful and moving Piano Trio, op. 15 (1855, revised 1857), was written in memory of the 4 1/2-year-old Bedřiška who had died in 1854 of scarlet fever. Although Smetana uses a descending chromatic motive representative of death in all three movements, the second movement provides a playful and tender portrait full of dancing rhythms. The final movement begins with the death motive and it returns near the end in a funeral march, but ultimately the composer presents a loving remembrance that transcends death.