Jitka Cechova - Bedrich Smetana: Piano Works Vol. 5 (2011)

Czech pianist Jitka Cechová has recorded several albums of Bedrich Smetana's piano music that catch the attractively rough-hewn, passionate quality of his instrumental compositions. This release is likewise well done, but it might have more helpfully been titled "Early Piano Music"; potential buyers should know that they're getting Smetana's youthful works, including, in the case of the Galopp in D major (track 9), a piece written when the composer was about seven. The bulk of the music comes from the early 1840s, when Smetana was in his late teens, and it shows a young composer following the models of Schumann, Mendelssohn, and the salon music (unfortunately given as "saloon" in the English version of the notes) of the time. This last is evident in the rather stilted quality of the two quadrilles at the end of the album and in sentimental pieces like Erinnerung an Pilsen (Memory of Pilsen, track 13), but much of the music has sass and appeal. Try one of the several polkas from the very dawn of this durable dance, especially the Louisen Polka (track 11), which was a personal favorite of Smetana's. You can see why: within the fixed polka form he adds plenty of rhythmic tension by very economical means, and Cechová puts its rhythmic vitality across quite idiomatically. The opening set of Bagatelles et Impromptus is actually fine, brief character pieces that announced Smetana's considerable talent for program music. Sample the 44-second Joie (Joy, track 5) for an absolutely distinctive miniature you may well not have heard. The bottom line is that fans of the mature Smetana will find plenty to enjoy in this album.