{"id":16636,"date":"2026-08-24T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praguehints.com\/czech-composers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T21:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:06:34","slug":"czech-composers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praguehints.com\/de\/czech-composers\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech Composers: Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Smetana, Jan\u00e1\u010dek and Martin\u016f"},"content":{"rendered":"

A country of ten million produced four composers who changed classical music. Where their work came from, and where to hear it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Czech music punches so far above its weight that it distorts the picture: four composers of genuine international rank from a small, occupied country, all within a century. What links them is that each built a national musical language out of folk material at a time when doing so was a political act.<\/p>\n

Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884)<\/h2>\n

The founder. Má vlast<\/em> (My Homeland) is a cycle of six symphonic poems; its second movement, Moldau<\/em>, follows the river from two springs to Prague and is the most recognisable piece of Czech music ever written. Smetana composed most of it after going completely deaf.<\/p>\n

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)<\/h2>\n

A butcher’s son from a village north of Prague who became the most internationally successful Czech composer. He spent three years directing a conservatory in New York, where he wrote the New World Symphony<\/strong> — music later carried to the moon on Apollo 11.<\/p>\n

Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)<\/h2>\n

The strangest and most modern of the four. He notated the melodies of ordinary Czech speech and built his operas from them, which is why Jenůfa<\/em> Und The Cunning Little Vixen<\/em> sound like nothing else. Most of his great work came after he turned sixty.<\/p>\n

Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)<\/h2>\n

Prolific, restless, and exiled by the war. Nearly 400 works, written across Paris, New York and Switzerland — he never returned home.<\/p>\n

Where to hear them<\/h2>\n

Der Rudolfinum<\/strong> is home to the Czech Philharmonic; the Gemeindehaus<\/strong> hosts the Prague Symphony. Má vlast<\/em> traditionally opens the Prague Spring festival each 12 May, on the anniversary of Smetana’s death.<\/p>\n

H\u00e4ufig gestellte Fragen<\/h2>\n

Which piece should I listen to first?<\/strong>
Moldau<\/em> by Smetana — twelve minutes, and you will recognise the main theme immediately.<\/p>\n

Where can I hear classical music in Prague?<\/strong>
The Rudolfinum and the Municipal House for orchestras; church concerts run nightly and are cheaper.<\/p>\n

Is Dvořák buried in Prague?<\/strong>
Yes, at Vyšehrad cemetery, along with Smetana and much of the Czech cultural canon.<\/p>\n

Read more: classical concerts in Prague<\/a>, the Prague Spring festival<\/a> Und Vyšehrad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last reviewed in August 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

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