Added: 3 years ago
From: imusiciki
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  • EXCELENTE

  • This almost makes me cry, I love this work so much! This is also probably my favorite version I've heard of it.

  • introduced to me by Mr Arne Pedersen (world-class gentleman, math teacher & violinist). To date, the only classical piece I can name. Thank you, sir.

  • The best! Music like water!!!

  • @piesseesse proberly because its about water...

  • I'm not sure 'vlast' means 'mother'. Does it not mean 'domain', 'my domain'? Or 'my ownership?' What is mine to own?

    Now in Russian it's 'mother Russia'. People whose country is 'mother' have a softer place in them, but ruthless history has its way over them anyway.

    There is something terrible about the 'father country'. I love the notion that before they died the Japanese kamikazes shouted, 'mother'. There is more potential in 'mother', which is why the Japanese gave up the warrior culture

  • @mrlevina2 How about "Homeland"?

  • perfect music - but just notice - I am born Czech

    and "Ma Vlast" means "My Country", or more exactly "My Motherland",

    basolutly not "Fatherland"

    - Germans name their Country Fatherland, that is the Great difference !!! :o)

  • Gosh, I love Smetana's music. I actually saw the Vlatava when I crossed the border from a relative's house, into the czech republic. Wow!

  • Its amazing! sounds like water, rivers, getting faster, faster and stronger

  • I love it

  • @batchava that's what it is about - a small stream, growing, passing a wedding, getting wider and stronger till it reaches the sea.

  • @triptriptriplestripe

    Thank you for your picturesque explanation.

  • breathtaking.

  • you can clearly hear the rivers, the fairies singing, the waterfall in the end of the song...

  • ...Splendid...

  • I just heard this in my Music History II class.... amazing.

  • Magnificent ! 

  • Je kráááásnééé být Čech...

  • Brilliant beyond words. Even through the tiny speakers on my computer.

  • This was recorded March 11, 1950 and remastered in 1999. The flutists were Arthur Lora (principal) and Carmine Coppola.

    The performance is typical Toscanini: strict attention to every detail. Maestro Toscanini let a performer or group know when it was time to enter by giving them a brief, but penetrating glance. A longer and dirtier glare followed a missed or tardy response, and it was a long time before the recipient of that glance failed again.

  • The piece contains Smetana's most famous tune. It is an adaptation of the melody La Mantovana, attributed to the Italian renaissance tenor Giuseppe Cenci (also known as Giuseppino),[3] which, in a borrowed Moldovan form, was also the basis for the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. The tune also appears in major in an old folk Czech song Kočka leze dírou ("The Cat Crawls Through the Hole") and Hans Eisler used it for his "Song of the Moldau".

    from wikipedia

  • The piece contains Smetana's most famous tune. It is an adaptation of the melody La Mantovana, attributed to the Italian renaissance tenor Giuseppe Cenci (also known as Giuseppino),[3] which, in a borrowed Moldovan form, was also the basis for the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. The tune also appears in major in an old folk Czech song Kočka leze dírou ("The Cat Crawls Through the Hole") and Hans Eisler used it for his "Song of the Moldau".

    from wikipedia

  • "Without love, life flashes by"

  • Hell, yes, heard this in the "Tree of Life" trailer.

  • i feal magic

  • I found the vinyl LP I believe this recording came from -- called Five Tone Poems -- was at a salvation army months ago and for a dollar bought it and have to say it was a very well spent buck. This was required listening for a music class I am taking this semester.

  • @rjciccone

    same here.

  • One day, we'll fall down and weep. You will understand it all, all things.

  • @TonyManeroNY do you know the second song in that trailer???

  • D'une telle beauté que j'en ai pleuré devant mon ordinateur comme une pauvre madelaine. Je suis tombé amoureux de cette composition qui est d'une telle qualité que je suis tombé de ma chaise comme un pauvre cochon qui a été mis sur une table. Jamais l'être humaina su créer quelque chose de si beau comme cette composition.

  • just listened to this awhile ago, compelling piece of art.

  • what an energy!!!! beautiful!!!!

  • The Tree of Life!

  • @MoyaMovieMusica LOL that is where i heard this song to

  • 8 Unfortunate souls must have accidentally pressed on the thumbs down button.

  • @ziplesswonder including ME on YOUR comment right now, simply because that's all I fucking hear, same line, word for word when someone talks about people thumbing something down. Call me a hater, I dont care. Someone's gonna read this and have a laff.

  • @sixamsedna lol

  • @psmtheman xd

  • the pizzicato is amazing in the beginning very crisp and fresh

  • I can't believe he was deaf and did this

  • @Riveascor wait the conductor? or smetana?

  • Really an amazing composition.

  • did the clash do a version of this

  • ma vlast has a special place in my heart for ever and eternity while i sit here and cry

  • @chrislebanon . yess it does, in fact they were both derived from the same melody ...

  • so nice

  • Aaah it always reminds me of a slow train ride I was on from Moscow to St. Petersburg...

    :)

  • this is not he original version. this has been adapted.

    its way to fast to the real Moldau.

    Smetanas was not in that hurry.

  • it sounds similar to the anthem of israel

  • oh my land its Algeria and i feel the same "fatherland "

  • the best ever damn it the beauty gona kill me some day

  • I loveeeee this!!!!!!!!!! :)

  • Does anyone hear an odd break at 8:11/8:12 ish? Could that be because this is remastered? It doesn't quite sound natural.

    My God, this interpretation is so good...

  • @phorsic I have just played my 1950s RCA album. That change in musical pitch and structure is just part of the song. Very good mono recording. I love the Danse Macabre on the flip side.

  • @acfinney I don't know...I hear a skip. The sound from the woodwinds and strings don't seem to decay fully and there's a very brief moment of silence. It sounds almost like they spliced it...Obviously that is a jarring moment in the music anyway, but I feel like this is something further...

  • @phorsic Interesting. My record is the same as this recording. I thought it was odd. The whole piece is an odd mix of haunting/ military/ glorious ect. The percussion gets in the way of the decay of winds and strings. Also, I think that this is a 1951-52 recording in the not so lively RCA studios of New York. It had the echo of a broom closet. Have you listened to a more recent performance of this? It may hold the key.

  • @phorsic There isn't any odd breaks, the composition is that way. You should get the entire album, it's fantastic!

  • water of life

  • Just playing this and abd the Karellia put one in Jerry and Ivans eye....

    They both say: Don't tread on me... writ large, with pride...

    die Gedanken sind Frie!!

    J.C.

  • playing this song in orchestra class right now, it is really such a beautiful piece! probably one of my favorites i've ever played (and ive been playing for about 8 years)

  • @cuboneluvstorchic1 : danke

  • I highly recommend listening to this piece by putting on a pair of really good headphones.

  • @hoozyerdaddi not on here the quality is very low

  • @hoozyerdaddi I enjoy it sitting between a pair of Sansui 1000 series speakers and a Pickering U38 on mono of course.

  • @cuboneluvstorchic1 lol i was the same way when i played it in school. 3:45-4:20 was always my favorite to play and listen to

  • Why cant todays music be played on real instruments with the standard of classical music ?.. This is what you call real music !!!...

  • Why cant todays music be played on real instruments with the standard of classical music ?.. This is what you call real music !!!....

  • @GizMogwai1960 reason is simple. Average people rather celebrate dumbness, because than they can match celebrities and train ego...

  • @GizMogwai1960 the North Jersey Regional HS Orchestra's playing this piece this year! :D

  • @GizMogwai1960

    because time is changed. got any more questions?

  • I agree with you.. ti do ragione

  • Goosebumps :3

  • i absolutely love the ending of this song

  • @MrAwesome2956 I thonk there is a part of a current Czech national anthem "Where is my home" right after the "Vyšehrad theme.

  • @martinfrehley yeah smetana was a czech nationalist

  • beyond words!!!!!!!!

  • Magnifique!!!!!

    Splendide!!!!!!

    Super!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Je ne connais aucune musique aussi belle que la Moldau!

  • Please, a song is sung and an instrumental piece is played.

  • Man the ending to this just sets it all right. Beautiful!

  • love the dueling flutes in the beginning!

  • I'm a little scared of the flute part but dang I love this song!

  • ..un abbracio a tutti gli Italaini veri,

    lavoratori, operai, uomini d'ingegno, arhitetti, medici specialisti, medici i base, infermieri..........

    non mandiamo la nostra forza lavoro all'estero.....

    siamo Italiani,

    gente ..speciale..

    grazie a Toscanini, Italiano!

  • Two streams, one cold, one warm, come together and the Moldeau is formed. It flows past the hunt then on to the wedding party. It now flows into night and all is quiet. Then the dawn and it flows past a large city with all it's hustle and bustle. Now, in all it's glory, it flows on to be consumed and lost in the sea.

    Listen for it.

  • I am amazed at Toscanini's musical imagination. He has so much control over the orchestra. I wonder how stressful it was being a musician under him? 10:30 onward seems beyond the capability of an orchestra, or at least beyond the control of a conductor. Thank you Maestro for providing us with the greatest that art can offer.

  • @davids2000 "A continuous phsychology of crisis" was how the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic described it!

  • Prachsprostá vykrádačka Kočka leze dírou.

  • @astromancer trubko, to je 6 tonu ze stupnice, no a? :D a to, ze motiv pouzil kazdy prece vi..a co asi tech dalsich desettisic not kolem..to je taky vykradacka??

  • I can imagine the Czech wedding as I come to that theme - the joy in it. The wonderful Moldau theme woven into the piece. And the Moon fairies on the water. The St. Charles rapids too. LOVE this piece and have for so many years.

  • excellence. I wish young kids like me appreciate this music. hahah. they have the burden of ignorance... I have the benefit of doubt.

  • For everyone who didn´t know the background of this cyklus and the author. Bedrich Smetana has finished this cykle when he was totally deaf. This part of the cykle called Vltava (Moldau) projects the story of the Czech national river, from the beginn, from the first springs in the mountains which can make sleepy and calm down, which are playful, to the killing torrent storm.

  • Someone says, Smetana has inspirited the author of Israels national anthem - HaTikva (see on U-Tube) .

  • Btw, the 9th symphonie, e-moll, opus 9, also knows as "From the New World" , from another Czech composer Antonin Dvorak supossed to be the American national anthem, but Dvorek has refused it (see on U-Tube).

  • I love this tune its amazing and my brother likes the guys hair. ;)

  • A lovely recording!

  • Awesome

  • Невероятно красиво!

  • love this version to death...=P

  • I compared this one to our Las Cruces performance, live..this May 2010 ..Ours was VG...This one is 'immortal' .

  • My favourite piece of classical music!!!

  • Don't know what I would do without NPR radio. They had a performer doing Tchaikovsky on piano tonight. I know, I know... very ordinary in the classical music world. But I LOVE it! However, Smetana - Moldau River is still my favorite. I know... I have loved this classical piece since 7th grade. It was one of my most played albums. It's still beautiful. Take a listen -

  • Thank you VERY much for sharing this musical gem, so well played and conducted here!!!!! (PS: What is the broadcast date for this performance? I KNOW it isn't the commercial recording released by RCA, because that was done in Carnegie Hall in 1952, and this is clearly Studio 8-H.)

  • @jmccracken1963 yes, it's the commercial recording done in NBCs Studio 8-H in 1950.

  • ferenc fricsay is better.

  • @Leibo07 ferenc fricsay não é nada perto de toscanini.

  • @MrPharaohtut

    falso. fricsay era próximo a ele como uma sorte do músico. e o toscanini ele mesmo estava sempre pronto para admitir ao seus próprios, um pouco grande, falhas.

  • MAGNIFICO !

    Grazie per il post

  • Wonderful

  • Incredibly moving and tranquil...an adventure for the mind. :)

  • Una maravilla, un precioso viaje por el Moldava.

  • Bellissimo! Come un´artista vero ha capito l´altro artista vero!

  • .Smetana takes us on a breathtaking trip down his homeland's famous river, and with Toscanini conducting! Brava Bredrich!

  • well done maestro Toscanini!!!

  • I am now addicted to this composition.

  • i´m from czech republic so i can vizualize the river Vltava. just listen once two flute and than.........  i m proud of the Smetana..

  • An excellent recording! TY Amy for downloading and Paul for sharing!

  • Glorious music making!  Bravo maestro!

  • Thanks for sending this to me. Wonderful!

  • I could listen to those two flutes at the beginning over and over again.

  • one of the most beautiful creations from the human mind, but some people are to stupid to understand this!!!

  • its a matter of opinion, though i do love this piece as much as you do if not more :P

  • @xxxWOLKxxx No, I read your comment just fine.

  • @xxxWOLKxxx but some people are *too stupid to understand this!

  • splendide orchestration de cette Moldau de Smetana!

    oeuvre musicale musicale descriptive sous la baguette d'A.Toscanini c'est doublement émouvant. Merci Imusiciki pour ce concert unique...

  • Woa!! Very interesting interpretation, I am used to the typical Czech raised, this is definitely beneficial view of Czech music from "outside", mainly I was intrigued by a faster tempo and dynamic contrasts, in any event, Smetana & Toscanini - an interesting combination!!

  • Comment removed

  • To appreciate the beauty of this piece you must first take a massive shit. Do not wipe. Then sit naked and play this beautiful piece.

  • Ridiculous. I'm outa here...

  • I want to fugue you.

  • I'm not the least interested in what you want, what you believe nor what you have to say. I'm probably not the first YouTube victim who wishes a restraining order could be filed against you.

  • Comment removed

  • I cannt imagine that just one of your favorite would composers would be abble to make a song deaf... Which Smetana was... So put your opinninon in your ass

  • Beethowen made Divertimanent type of music, you are talking shit there...

  • I am a person of no color and find some of these comments disturbing

  • God tells me how the music should sound, but you stand in the way.

    -Arturo Toscanini

  • Actually, you're not worth Toscanini and Smetana even noticing.

  • Grandious!!

  • If you hate this song, where do you stand on such astounding masterpieces such as Gustav Holst's Jupiter: Bringer of Jollity, or Modest Mussorsky's Great Gate of Kiev? How about Camille Saint-Saëns' Dance Macabre? All of these pieces of music have similar epic-poem style music flow, and all have been renowned as some of the greatest classics.

    So why not Bedřich Smetana's Moldau?  It's got musical poetic feel, and many characteristics of great music... It is an epic soundtrack of the mind.

  • This composition would sound so much better like this:

    Amin, Bb, Cmin, F, Csus7, G, D, Amin

    Good, huh?

  • Symphonic doggerel.

  • When you can present one of your compositions for symphony orchestra which sounds like this piece, we will continue the conversation.

  • Comment removed

  • How so? While I disagree I am curious as to why you see it as such?

  • Comment removed

  • Other listeners with great taste have called the music magnificent.

  • Its people like you that give me the drive to teach music, so hopefully not every kid in America winds up with a mindset such as yours. Unless you can compose something as nationalistic, and beautiful. I suggest you don't comment on this anymore. I bet both Toscanini and Smetana are rolling over in their grave.

  • I disagree with your comment.

  • Ridiculous assertion, but I don't really care.

  • beautiful

  • Very nice, it's a shame that only Vltava is so well known from "My country" (Ma vlast). It's all so beutifull!

  • Yes, it is all very beautiful, and wonderful music. I am partial to the fourth movement, Z českých luhů a hájů (From Bohemia's meadows and forests), but they're all good.

  • It is well known among the Czechs that, in fact, they are the chosen race of God.

  • ..there is a building up of rythym in this piece that almost all conductors destroy....they lose balance effect and continuity....you want no other version after this Toscanini recording.....it is just matchless perfection.....

  • I agree...

  • I heard this orchestra on a local arts channel, and was mesmerized by the richness and fullness of the sound of the entire orchestra, and how it flowed together as a whole. I had to hunt it down, and I found it, thanks to you. Thank you sincerely for making my day a whole lot better.

  • The constant strenuous fingerwork is amazing here amongst the strings. If I were conductor I might be tempted to increase the tempo in the initial theme, but damn, fingers can only move so fast, ya know! Toscanini insisted upon clarity, and he got that. I think the musicians' knuckles would have caught fire if they had gone any faster!

  • This may well be the greatest string section ever assembled--and it really shows here.

    Too bad that this, plus his string quartet, are the only pieces still in the modern repertory. How much great music there is to re-introduce to modern audiences!

  • Certainly not a bad performance, but it ain't really Smetana either. Toscanini re-orchestrated the entire St. John's Rapids section and even cut a few measures. His changes aren't an improvement.

  • They got such a deep, full, rich sound....... wonderful!!!!!

    One of my favorite compositions of all time!!!

  • Love this song=]

  • Un chef-d'oeuvre!! Magnifique!! Pourquoi n'y a-t-il plus des génies comme Smetana et Dvořák?

  • In Czech, please.

  • Mistrovské dílo!! Nádherný!! Proč ne dnes trvat muzikálnost jako Smetana a Dvořák?

    happy now?

  • Docela Být zavázán tebe!

  • rádo se stalo

  • I am playing this in my youth orchestra. Its awesome!

  • magnifica

  • this is soo beautiful

    i love this.....

  • Comment removed

  • semplicemente emozionante. entra nelle vene e scorre sostenuto come il moldova. brividi!!!!!! stupenda

  • What an interpretation. Truly wonderful lycricism. really brings out the fantasitical qualities of Smetana's mucic, yet still portraying both the beauty and granduer of his homeland. It's almost hard to imagine music like this was the result of a dictatorship amongst an orchestra. nevertheless just close your eyes and let your imagination run wild!