Smetana: Piano Works 3 (Czech Dances, Bettina Polka, The Peasant Woman, Romance etc.)

Jitka Čechová is an energetic young pianist and member of the highly successful Smetana Trio. On her third CD of Smetana's piano works she proves how intimately familiar she is with thecomposer's style. The album includes Smetana's greatest piano cycle, the Czech Dances, written in the years 1877-79. The first part of the cycle consists of four polkas, while the second part contains Smetana's concert interpretations of specific Czech folk dances (including the Furiant, Skočná, Rejdovák a rejdovačka, Sousedská, Hulán and Medvěd). The album is rounded out with Smetana's late piano works. The Romance in G minor (1881) was the last piece he composed for piano, though at the very end of his life he revised his famous Bettina Polka (1883). Smetana's greatest piano cycle Czech Dances in an outstanding performance by Jitka Čechová