Poem, for orchestra, Op. 41/4
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Poem, for orchestra, Op. 41/4
- Date: 1894
- Composer: Zdenek Fibich
- Period: Post-Romantic (1870-1909)
Review
That Zdenek Fibich's best-known work for orchestra was not conceived for orchestra at all seems ironic and more than a little curious. The Czech composer's Poème was drawn from one of a series of piano sketches, often referred to as diaries. Number 139 among the 376 compositions of varying length, style, and complexity constituting Fibich's Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences, the piano piece is characterized by its melodic effusiveness, by what the 1980 edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians called a "slightly over-sweet, poignant melodic idiom." Fibich poached from these very personal piano sketches a number of themes he later used in his operas and in his eloquent and exceedingly beautiful Piano Quintet.The story of these diaries is essential to an understanding of Fibich and his music of the 1890s. The Moods, Impressions, and Reminiscences recorded musically the composer's love for the young Anezka Schulzová. They are small but detailed programmatic works, some of them sexually explicit. By 1896, Fibich had left his wife due to his infatuation with Schulzová (although by the following year, entries in the "diaries" slowed considerably before ending altogether). He met Schulzová when she came to him to study composition. A woman of considerable literary skill, she provided Fibich with the librettos for his three final operas (Hedy, Šárka, and Pád Arkuna), all of which feature strong female characters about which the stories revolve.
It was the writer Zdenek Nejedlý who exposed the meaning of these short pieces in an article published in 1925 under the title "Zdenek Fibich's Erotic Diaries." Through study of the composer's remarks on the manuscript and through examination of Schulzová's own notations, Nejedlý was able to determine that these works chronicled their love affair. Some parts were references to activities, some to feelings evoked by their entanglement, and some were descriptive of the woman's body. While the reaction to these revelations varied (some believing them altogether too personal to have been shared with the world at large), a far more precise notion of Fibich's state of mind is possible through knowledge of his burning preoccupation during these years. By 1896, although his devotion to Schulzová continued unabated, Fibich turned from the diaries to larger, more outward forms of composition. A steadily weakening heart plagued him in his final years, and he succumbed to a bout of pneumonia in 1900.
Poème has been heard in numerous arrangements, fashioned by various others. Most often, it is heard played by salon orchestras, not infrequently in a reworking by Bohuslav Leopold. ~ Erik Eriksson, Rovi
Albums with Complete Performances of the Work
Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work
| Title | Date |
| The Best of the Classical Masterpieces |
| Poem, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano | |
| Poem, for piano |
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Poem, for orchestra, Op. 41/4
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