Sadly, even by “great composers” standards, Bedřich Smetana didn’t get to enjoy much in the way of sweetness or light. On the contrary, he suffered much tragedy and turbulence in his life – untimely deaths of family and friends, political instability, an unhappy second marriage, chronic illness, deafness, madness, and his own early demise at the age of 60.

But he is celebrated as the founder of a Czech national school in music, the composer of abundant characteristic dances and other folk-inflected pieces. So for the 200th anniversary of his birth, on March 2, 1824, we’ll honor these aspects of his legacy with an hour of his “lighter” works.

Of course, not all of Smetana’s music can characterized as sweet OR light. He was an admirer and acolyte of Franz Liszt, and there is often a substantial Wagnerian influence, in some of his operas, especially. Some of the Czech dances we’ll enjoy wed Bohemian folk tradition with knuckle-busting keyboard Romanticism. And of the operas, we have but one very brief selection, the famous polka from “The Bartered Bride” – however taken from a complete recording of the work, so we’ll get to experience it from a fresh perspective, with the rarely-heard chorus.

Interestingly, the surname Smetana is also the word for a kind of cream, frequently of the sour variety, or perhaps a crème fraîche. I assure you, the emphasis this week will be on “Sweet Cream,” for the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

It will be tragedy tomorrow, comedy today, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Enjoy it, wherever you are, here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

IMAGE: Bedřich Smetana, babe-magnet