Europe's Great Cinemas

The story of the birth of Bedřich Smetana's most famous composition, from his first impressions of his stay in Šumava through the images of the Czech landscape through which the Vltava River flows, is told by Jakub Hrůša, chief conductor of the famous German orchestra, in Axel Fuhrmann's documentary film... The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana captured the "sound of the river's springs" as early as 1867 during his stay in Šumava. However, he did not compose "Vltava" until seven years later, when he was already completely deaf. For the individual movements of his world-famous symphonic poem he used various motifs, including the sound of the now extinct Svätojánské streams near Štěchovice. One of the main melodies is said to be taken from the Czech folk song Kočka leze hole, which Smetana transposed into the minor key...