Son of a weaver (1722), trained by the Jesuits then abruptly summoned to the Court of the King of Prussia (1745), Jiří Antonín Benda stood out as a master of the melodrama and the Singspiel. He left a large oeuvre for keyboard (17 sonata, 34 sonatinas), which take over the Baroque heritage of the Bach family, especially the ‘Hamburg and Berlin Bach’, Carl Philip Emanuel, then the Classical style, thereby providing an example as much to Mozart as to Haydn or Beethoven. Initially enamoured of Empfindsamkeit (sensitivity), he decanted his style to write, in his lonely final years, sonatas that were more appreciated than Haydn’s and sufficiently innovative to interest the young Beethoven.

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Here, two of the most famous works in the Czech repertoire are brought together, transcribed for piano four hands, as was customary in the 19th century—as a colourist by Dvořák himself, celebrating his native land, or as a virtuoso pianist by Smetana, relating the irrepressible speed of the river that flows through Bohemia and magnifies Prague, its capital. Voici réunies parmi les pages les plus célèbres du répertoire tchèque, transcrites pour piano à 4 mais selon l’usage du XIX° siècle, en coloriste par Dvořák lui-même célébrant sa terre natale, en pianiste virtuose par Smetana rendant compte de l’irrépressible vélocité du fleuve qui traverse la Bohême, et magnifie Prague, sa capitale

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Praga DaCamera

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“La Ville” for solo piano, can be understood as a sort of postlude to K, a stroll outside of time, a tribute to the historic quarters of Prague haunted by the shade of Kafka, as much a psychological labyrinth as a seemingly abstract construction with a strange power of fascination (world premiere).

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Despite his very short career, the composer of Freischütz, a work haunted by the supernatural and the fantastic, opening the way to German opera leading to Wagner, also left a non-operatic oeuvre just as festive, neglected but hardly negligible. A virtuoso pianist, he wrote brilliant pieces for himself, requiring assurance, bravura and a certain arrogance. Before Chopin and Liszt, he demonstrated that virtuosity, far from stifling inspiration, can make the discourse almost familiar to the listener, enjoined to dreams not tragedy. Dubbed a ‘prince of music’ by Stravinsky, an aristocrat of an art that is a source of youth and freshness, an invitation to the dance or to a feria tinged with humour but apparently devoid of afterthoughts.

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