Scenes from Macbeth - Bedřich Smetana / instr. Otakar Jeremiáš
Orchestrating a piano part which makes use of the utmost opportunities of technical virtuosity is very difficult, because some specific piano means of expression have no adequate counterpart in the orchestra. Nevertheless, there are outstanding examples of the instrumentation of such piano compositions. One of them is Bedřich Smetana's piece "Scenes from Macbeth" in Otakar Jeremiáš's arrangement for the symphony orchestra.
Smetana composed the piano piece "Scenes from Macbeth" during his stay in Sweden in 1859. From Shakespeare's demonic drama, he chose the suggestive part when the protagonist encounters, on a gloomy Scottish moor, witches who foretell supreme power for him, concealing that it will bring him death, too. Smetana expressed the scene, which makes the listener shudder, with romantically excited music, full of tension, turbulent chromatic scales, dramatic dynamic gradations, and pregnant dissonances.
Other compositions by Bedřich Smetana published in Czech Radio:
Louise's polka, From student's life, Jiřinková polka - Bedřich Smetana/instr. Iša Krejčí
Prague Carnival
instrumentation2fl, 2ob, cor ingl, 2cl, cl in Es, cl b, 2fg, cfg, 4cor, 3trb, 3trb, tb, timp, batt, arp, archidescriptionscorepubl.No.R 052price275 CZK
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