Fibich, Zdeněk (Antonin Václav)

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Fibich, Zdeněk (Antonin Václav) (b Všebořice, 1850; d Prague, 1900). Cz. composer. Taught pf. in Paris 1868–9. Returning to Prague, worked as th. cond., but lived mainly from comps. Was first Romantic Cz. composer, in this respect standing apart from Dvořák, Smetana, and Janáček. Among his most remarkable achievements are his concert and stage melodramas, the most ambitious ever written, especially the trilogy Hippodamia (1888–91), and his 376 Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences for solo piano (1892–9), a ‘diary’ of his love for his piano pupil, the writer Anežka Schulzová (1868–1905). His operas include Bukovin (1870–1); Blaník (1874–7); Nevěsta mesinská (The Bride of Messina) (1882–3); Bouře (The Tempest, after Shakespeare) (1893–4); Hedy (1894–5); Šárka (1896–7); and Pád Arkuna (The Fall of Arkona) (1898–9). Wrote much incidental music; 3 syms.; several sym.-poems; chamber mus.; and over 200 songs. His sym.-poem At Twilight (V podvečer) (1893) contains the celebrated Poem.