Memories: Smetana the Pianist

'The stamp of true genius is that it enobles and strengthens. Smetana never seeks merely to amuse us; he is not our servant. He towers above us teaching us beauty, truth and loftiness of purpose'

- Jan Neruda (1834-91), poet and friend

'When he played, the movements of his arms, hands and fingers were very natural and not in the least ostentatious, and he was outwardly calm. He sat, slightly stooped, at the piano and only took up half of the chair which was pushed backwards for the purpose. He held his hands during playing so that they slanted slightly downwards. (The old school demands, as is known, that the hands be completely horizontal.) When playing staccato passages and striking chords he never lifted his fingers before striking the next note by a mere raising of the hand at the wrist, but always by raising the entire arm or at least the forearm so that the actual lifting of the hands was always imperceptible. The hand, relaxed at the wrist, was in a vertical position when raised and only assumed a horizontal position when striking the keys from a greater height. He also made instinctive use of sideways movements of the hands and joints, even of bending and circling movements'

- Josef Jiranek (1855-1940), professor of piano at the Prague Conservatoire, formerly Kharkov, posthumously published Reminiscences, Prague 1941

'... in the gathering dusk of an evening, Smetana would play Chopin for me. I would not exchange this experience for anything I have since heard in the concert hall by the foremost virtuosos of the last ten years ...'

- Jaroslav Goll (1848-1929), professor of history at Prague University

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