Symphony No 1 / Impressions from the Country

Zdenek Fibich's career overlapped those of his countrymen Smetana and Dvorak,
but his music remained poised between the twin poles of Czech Nationalism and the
New German School. His earliest surviving symphony is No. 1 in F major, Op. 17,
completed in Prague in 1883. Whilst it is the most conventional of his three
symphonies it is excellently proportioned and reveals the influence of Schumann on
his developing art. Impressions from the Countryside, Op. 54 is, in effect, a symphonic suite and was highly influential on the younger generation of Czech composers.