Together with B. Smetana and A. Dvorak, Zdenek Fibich is the most significant representative of the founding Czech music generation of the second half of the 19th Century.
He devoted himself primarily to composing and private instruction. He was then Prozatimni divadlo's conductor from 1875 to 1877, and from 1899 to 1900 he was the dramatic opera advisor at the National Theater. In his youth, he fought for "new art," represented by Liszt, Wagner, and Smetana.
As a composer, Fibich took up with German romanticism (Schumann), which he enhanced with various balladic elements, imaginary lyricism, and tragic pathos. Fibich's work is devoted to many forms: intimate songs, lyrical piano cycles (Nalady, dojmy, upominky - Moods, Impressions, Reminiscences), and chamber compositions. His orchestral pieces include all the forms of that period - 3 symphonies, overtures, symphonic poems (Toman a lesni panna - Toman and the Maiden in the Woods), and the idyll "V podvecer" ("Early Evening"). Fibich had been enamoured with opera since the time of his youth (Bukovin, Blanik, Nevesta mesinska - The Bride of Messina , Boure - The Storm).
A very important part of Fibich's legacy includes melodramatic works in which he considered the consequences of Wagner's principles and, in this way, created, by the use of techniques of symptomatic motives, the greatest of all international literature and the most perfected scenic melodrama in the vast trilogy, Hippodamia. He also published Large Theoretical and Practical School of Piano Playing.
His orchestral pieces include all the forms of that period - 3 symphonies, overtures, symphonic poems (Toman a lesni panna - Toman and the Maiden in the Woods), and the idyll "V podvecer" ("Early Evening"). In all, he wrote more than 600 pieces.
Listen to samples of his music:
Symphony no. 1, Opus 39 "Twilight"
Symphony no. 2, Adagio
References
http://www.musicabona.com/cdshop1/fibich01.html
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/f/fibich.html
http://www.netspace.net.au/~aflutist/54064Fibich.html
http://home.prcn.org/~pauld/opera/19cent18.htm
http://www.stevenestrella.com/composers
Updated 01 April 2010
