Czech classical music Antonín Dvořák Bedřich Smetana Josef Mysliveček Otakar Ševčík

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic period. Antonín was one of the two most famous Czech composers. Antonín studied at school for butchers. He loved music and studied organ school in Prague. Dvořák also played the viola in the orchestra. He married Anna Čermáková. They had nine children, but three died in infancy. Antonín Dvořák was invited to London and New York in order to conduct his work. He harvested a huge success. Eventually he returned to Bohemia where he was very popular. Dvorak became a professor at Prague Conservatory. He died at the age of 63. Composition: nine symphonies operas: Rusalka, Čert a Káča, Dimitrij…(total 10 ) concerts and concert compositions ( total 5) and many others th -20 th century

Bedřich Smetana Bedrich Smetana is the first Czech composer best known today. Primarily he is known for the cycle of symphonic poems like My Country and operas The Bartered Bride and Libuse. He started playing the violin at the age of five, but his father had no understanding for his gift. After finishing primary school and gymnasium he went to study in London. There he devoted himself to music. After graduating he goes to work in Prague, where they lived and worked as a music teacher. At that time he began composing his earliest music. He had a great talent. His works: The Brandenburgers in Bohemia, (Braniboři v Čechách) The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevěsta, German: Die verkaufte Braut) Dalibor Libuše My Country (Má vlast) From My Life (Z mého života) And many more … 19 th century

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno.The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include the symphonic poem Sinfonietta, the oratorio Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, string quartets, other chamber works and operas. He is considered to rank with Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, as one of the most important Czech composers. 19 th -20 th century

Josef Mysliveček Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant compositional models in the genres of symphony, Italian serious opera, and violin concerto; both Wolfgang and his father Leopold Mozart considered him an intimate friend from the time of their first meetings in Bologna in 1770 until he betrayed their trust over the promise of an operatic commission for Wolfgang to be arranged with the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. He was close to the Mozart family, and there are frequent references to him in the Mozart correspondence. 18 th century

Otakar Ševčík Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.Ševčík was born in Horažďovice, Austro-Hungary. He received his first lessons from his father. He studied under Antonín Bennewitz at the Prague Conservatory and began his career in 1870 as concertmaster of the Mozarteum concerts in Salzburg, where he also taught. After 1873, he was concertmaster at the Prague Interim (Provisional) Theatre and the Komische Oper at the Ring Theatre in Vienna. From 1875 to 1892 he was professor of violin at the music school of the Russian Music Society in Kiev, at the same time appearing frequently as soloist. In 1892 he became head of the violin department at the Prague Conservatory, where he remained until He then taught privately in Písek. In 1909, he became director of the Violin Department at the Vienna Music Academy, until 1918, when at the end of World War I his nationality forced him to leave his position. He returned to the Prague Conservatory, where he stayed until He afterwards travelled in the United States and Great Britain as a teacher. He died in Písek.

This presentation has been made by Anna Novotná and Michaela Jetmarová Police nad Metují 2012