For: Piano four hands
Publication language: cz./ger./eng.

Bärenreiter URTEXT
Editor Hugh Macdonald

original version for piano - four hands

- new urtext edition in a practical Primo / Secondo landscape format, in a clear rate and a modern design
- detailed introduction to the creation and reception of the work by the important Smetana researcher Oľga Mojžíšová (English / Slovak / German)
- Critical Editor's Report (English)

One of the most famous Czech compositions of the 19th century was composed in just 19 days. Smetana composed the Vltava from November 20 and at the end of the score he wrote: Finished on December 8, 1874 in 19 days being completely deaf. The following year, two more poems were written, Šárka and From Czech Meadows and Groves, and he immediately prepared four-handed piano arrangements for all four. He then returned to the cycle only in the years 1878-79, when he closed the work in Tábor and Blaník into a six-part form, which was not published by Fr. A. Urbanek was given the definitive name My Homeland.
The Vltava was first published together with Vyšehrad first in the composer's four-handed piano version in December 1879 and only then, in the first half of 1880, was the score released. Hugh Macdonald's text edition includes not only the orchestral score, but also the presented arrangement for a four-hand piano.