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The rising tide of Czech nationalism had a radical effect on Bedřich

Smetana’s personality, consequently influencing the whole of his

musical output. He was not the only Czech composer to express such

heated nationalism, but he was the most brilliant of the pioneers

and creators of a hitherto inexistent national art. Smetana and his

contemporaries assimilated not only Germanic culture, from Bach to

Brahms, but also the Austrian filiation from Mozart onwards, and the

compositions of Liszt and Wagner, to which they were very strongly

drawn.

He was the first composer to look into Bohemian musical sources, to

use the Czech language in his opera librettos (seen as provocation

by the Austrian authorities) and to seek out regional rhythms and

melodies. Unlike Dvořák, who invented his own local flavours, Smetana

dipped his pen into the realism and spontaneity of folk music. His

operatic works, and even more so, perhaps, his piano pieces (the

virtuosity of which puts them on a par with those of Liszt), show not

only a revolutionary musician, but also one who was fascinated by the

sounds of former times.