After taking a break from piano composition for more than a decade, Smetana returned to the instrument in 1875 with Rêves (Dreams). He had matured as a composer, having written in this time five operas and several symphonic poems, and had lost his hearing. The six pieces that make up Rêves stand apart from his earlier, salon-style piano works in that they are introspective and show a more subdued approach to decorative flourishes. Plus, their harmonic adventurousness gives them an air of profundity. Smetana completed the set between August 5 and September 14, 1875; they were not published until 1879.

Smetana dedicated the six character pieces of Rêves to former students who had helped him through difficult financial times. The first three are dedicated to the Thuns, the fifth and sixth to the Noritz family, and the last to the Lobkowitz family. However, one of Smetana's current pupils, Josef Jiránek, thought Smetana's harmonic experiments in Rêves produced "terrible dissonances" and were "mistakes." Smetana replied, "If...you have not arrived at the stage where you understand all the possibilities of harmony or its combinations, then I am sorry for you...." As a group, they form a serious-minded cycle of tone poems.

This serious nature comes through in the first of the group, "Le bonheur éteint" (Faded Happiness). A slow section, marked Andante, gives way to bravura passages that may suggest Smetana's former career as a virtuoso. An abbreviated return of the Andante squelches the triumphant central section before the piece closes with an outburst. The harmonically daring second piece, "La consolation" (Consolation), evokes Chopin's Nocturnes. It has a very inward character, except in the rhapsodic central section. No. 3, "En Bohême: scène champêtre" (In Bohemia: in the country), features Czech tunes and rhythms. The fourth piece, "Au salon" (In the salon) boasts a wide emotional range that centers on despair, and features an elegiac melody. No. 5, "Près du château" (By the castle), employs two contrasting melodies, the second and more lyrical of which closes the piece. The rhapsodic work is filled with vibrant, dissonant harmonies and aggressive rhythms. Most striking is the rapid modulation from B minor to C minor and on to E flat major in the coda.

Like "En Bohême: scène champêtre," the finale piece, "La fête des paysans bohémiens" (Celebration of the Bohemian peasants), uses Czech dance rhythms, particularly that of the skocná. It is a lively polka with the formal characteristics of a scherzo that moves with unbounded energy. The piece traverses several moods in smooth succession, rejecting the gloomy atmosphere of some of the preceding "Dreams." Its overall flavor resembles that of From Bohemian Fields and Groves, the fourth tone poem in Smetana's Ma vlast.

The compositional success of Rêves gave Smetana the confidence for forge ahead with what would be some of his greatest works.

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