Bedrich Smetana: The Complete Czech Dances

Bedrich Smetana (Composer), Antonin Kubalek (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Antonin Kubalek
• Composer: Bedrich Smetana
• Audio CD (August 31, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dorian Recordings
• ASIN: B000001Q85
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,917 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you don't know Smetana's Czech Dances, allow me to recommend them. These Czech Polkas and other dances are among the most delightful piano music from the Czech nationalist school, on a level with Dvorák's Slavonic Dances. Tuneful and filled with catchy rhythms, they are a guaranteed cure for the blues. Antonin Kubalek, a Czech-Canadian pianist, plays superbly, making the rhythms come alive so vividly that I tap my foot whenever I play the disc. The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall acoustics are another asset. Although there's nearly an hour of music on the CD, Smetana wrote more and I wish Dorian had recorded more of it. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one is the best, April 19, 2005

By 

R. Pohl (Brno, Czech Republic) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bedrich Smetana: The Complete Czech Dances (Audio CD)

I heard five performances of Czech dances, so I'm quite familiar with this cycle (actually, I'm playing some of them) and I must say - the Kubalek's version is the number one. Now and forever. Lovely music, recommended to all music lovers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Piano music that deserves more attention than it has gotten, March 2, 2004

By 

chefdevergue (Spokane, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bedrich Smetana: The Complete Czech Dances (Audio CD)

Antonin Kubalek has graced us with a series of sparkling recordings courtesy of the Dorian label. As a Czech emigre to Canada, Kubalek has remained somewhat out of the mainstream in classical music, but a fair amount of the Dorian label was available via BMG a few years ago, which is how I first became acquainted with Kubalek's artistry. I was indeed delighted to make the acquaintance, as Kubalek possesses as fine a musical maturity as one is likely to encounter today.

In this album, he devotes his attention to the two books of Czech Dances by Smetana. Both Smetana & Dvorak are well-known to mainstream classical audiences, but certainly not for their piano music. Smetana more than Dvorak might remind the listener of a Czech version of Chopin, as the vast majority of his output was for piano. These collections of miniatures are in the same vein as Chopin's Polonaises or Mazurkas, all based on native Czech folk dances. Smetana wrote all of these dances fairly late in his life, by which time he had gone totally deaf (but had not yet gone insane).

Kubalek, as is usual, gives beautifully-wrought performances, carefully shaping every phrase, tempo & dynamic. It has been 14 years since Dorian released this album, yet one can only hope that Kubalek may yet again get the opportunity to record more of Smetana's & Dvorak's wrongly-neglected piano music.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Labor of Love By a Great Pianist, January 29, 2002

By 

James Skrydlak "mostlymozart" (Pella, Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bedrich Smetana: The Complete Czech Dances (Audio CD)

Antonin Kubalek left his native Czechoslovakia for Canada in 1968, as the Soviet tanks were rolling into Prague. The homesickness that he felt for his native country awakened a new affection for the piano music of such Czech composers as Dvorak, Martinu, Janacek, and the man generally regarded as the father of Czech classical music, Bedrich Smetana.

This recording, twenty years after he left Czechoslavakia, is the exquisite product of that awakening. The love that he feels for these pieces is audible in every note. Kubalek is definitely a romantic pianist, using considerable rubato. Yet he keeps every note under control, and he shapes each piece beautifully.

These are dances in much the same way as Chopin's waltzes, polonaises, etc., with cadences, accelerandos, etc. Yet every one is based on a dance native to Czechoslovakia. Only the furiant from Book 2 was at all familiar to me. It was a true delight to discover the others.

While Antonin Kubalek is not very well known, his recordings of this and other Czech music establish him as a peer of such greats as Ivan Moravec and Rudolf Firkusny.

Dorian's sound is, as always, perfect.