8th Philharmonic Concert: Along the Vltava

The great cycle My Fatherland (Má vlast) by Bedřich Smetana is popular all over the world, especially of course The Vltava . In the Czech Republic, however, the cycle is much more than that: a crystallization point of national consciousness. Every year, the great Prague Spring festival opens with it and My Fatherland is an indispensable part of the national holiday commemorating the founding of independent Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1918 .