SMETANA: POLKAS, BAGATELLES & IMPROMPTUS - KVAPIL

Smetana: Polkas, MacBeth & The Witches, Bagatelles & Impromptus

Radoslav Kvapil

“Kvapil is entirely inside this repertoire…..a highly sensitive exponent” (Penguin Guide)

“They (Dances) should be better known, and domestic pianists would find a good many of them well within finger-reach; anyone can take pleasure in Kvapil’s expert, sensitive performances, which touch delicately on the emotions lying beneath the music’s surface….allusive pieces which bear the same relationship as Chopin’s Mazurkas do to their parent dance….The second set ….form an attractive and well-contrasted group. The earlier Bagatelles and Impromptus of 1844 are much simpler, and have a direct lyricism that was coloured by his love for his future wife Katerina” (Gramophone)

1 Macbeth a čarodějnice (Macbeth and the Witches) (Op. post. 1858-59) 10:56
(from) Tří salonni polky (Three Salon Polkas) (Op.7 1854)
2 Polka in F minor 4:45
(from) Tří poetické polky (Three Poetic Polkas) (Op.8 1854)
3 Polka in Eb major 2:31
4 Polka in G minor 4:12

Vzpominka na Čechy ve formě polek (Memories of Bohemia in Polka Form)
(Op.12 1859-60)
5 Polka in A minor 3:36
6 Polka in E minor 6:38

Vzpominka na Čechy ve formě polek (Memories of Bohemia in Polka Form)
(Op.133 1859-60)
7 Polka in E minor 2:46
8 Polka in Eb minor 5:53

České tance (Czech Dances) 1 (1877)
9 Polka in F sharp minor 3:22
10 Polka in A minor 2:55 12. Polka in B flat 3:49
11 . Polka in F 3:36

Bagately a Impromptus (Bagatelles and Impromptus) (1844)
13 Nevinnost (Innocence) 2:51
14 Skličenost (Depression) 1:28
15 Idyla (Idyll) 1:12
16 Touha (Longing) 1:56
17 Radost (Joy) 0:44
18 Pohádka (Fairytale) 3:10
19 Láska (Love) 2:58
20 Nesvár (Discord) 1:41