Antonin Dvorak

Great Czech Composer

1841-1904

Romantic period

"I wish you could have heard Dvorak's music, it is simply ravishing … so tuneful and clever - I cannot describe it, it must be heard."

Dvorak’s Life Born in 1841 in a small town near Prague. His father was an amateur musician, the village

innkeeper and butcher a trade to which the young Dvorak would be apprenticed for three years.

He learned the violin. At 16 he was sent to the Prague Organ School. At 18, he plunged into the life of a working musician. He

played in various dance bands, usually as a violist, but also as a trained organist.

In 1861 Dvorák joined the National Theatre in Prague as a violist.

Around this time, he also began giving private piano lessons, eventually marrying one of his students.

Dvorak found it easy to compose a lot of music quickly, including Slovonic Dances in 1878.

Became a professor of composition at the Prague Conservatory.

Went on a series of trips to London to conduct his own music.

In 1884 he earned a commission to compose The Spectre’s Bride, a ghost story cantata.

In 1891 he received an honorary doctorate degree from Cambridge University, England.

Following successful tours to Russia and Germany, Dvorák accepted an invitation in 1892 to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.

In 1893 while in the United States, he wrote what is probably his most famous work, the Symphony in E Minor from The New World.

In 1895 Dvorák returned to Prague where he completed Rusalka in 1900, the ninth of his 10 operas. In it, he tells the familiar story of a water nymph who falls in love with a human prince.

The following year Dvorák became the director of the Prague Conservatory. He devoted his last years to working on an opera, Armida.

Despite the international recognition he had achieved, Dvorák lived in relative poverty as a result of unfavorable contracts with his music publishers.

He died on May 1, 1904. A national day of mourning was declared, and Dvorák was honored with a burial in Vysehrad Cemetery, where many prominent Czechs are also buried.

Dvorak’s Cello Concerto Piece for solo Cello and Orchestra

Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104How it came to be composed The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, Op. 104 was

the last composed of Dvořák's concertos. He wrote it in 1894-1895 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan. Wihan and others had asked for a cello concerto for some time, but Dvořák always refused, stating that the cello was a fine orchestral instrument but completely insufficient for a solo concerto.

Dvořák composed the concerto in New York while serving as the Director of the National Conservatory. In 1894 Victor Herbert, who was also teaching at the Conservatory, had written a cello concerto and presented it in a series of concerts. Dvořák attended at least two performances of Victor Herbert's cello concerto and was inspired to fulfill Wihan's request for a cello concerto. Dvořák's concerto received its premiere in London on March 16, 1896. The work was well received. Brahms said of the work: "Had I known that one could write a cello concerto like this, I would have written one long ago!"

Dvorak’s Legends Op.59, B.122 A cycle of ten small-scale pieces.

Allegretto non troppo, quasi andantino (in D minor) Molto moderato (in G major) Allegro giusto (in G minor) Molto maestoso (in C major) Allegro giusto (in A major) ♭ Allegro con moto (in C♯ minor) Allegretto grazioso (in A major) Un poco allegretto (in F major) Andante con moto (in D major) Andante (in B minor)♭

The work was composed originally for piano duet, but later was arranged also for a reduced orchestra.

Symphony Nova Scotia is playing 2 of them.

Symphony No. 8 in G major, Opus 88 Composed and orchestrated by Antonín Dvořák within the two-

and-a-half-month period from August 26 to November 8 1889 in Vysoká u Příbrami, Bohemia.

The score was dedicated: "To the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in thanks for my election."

Dvořák conducted the premiere in Prague on February 2, 1890. Characterized by a warmer and more optimistic tone. Some feel the Eighth is the best of his symphonies. Parts of it show his Bohemian background. His Ninth Symphony, the New World Symphony, is very popular

because of its musical images of North America. Dvořák was interested in the Native American music and African-American spirituals he heard in America.

Movements The work is in four movements: Allegro con brio (G major) – The first movement is a powerful and glowing

exposition characterized by liberal use of timpani. It opens with a lyrical G minor theme in the cellos, horns, clarinets and bassoon with violas and double basses pizzicato. This gives way to a "bird call" flute melody. The general cheery nature of this movement is contrasted sharply by the more ominous minor-key sections.

Adagio (C minor) – Despite being marked Adagio the second movement, in reality, moves along at quite a reasonable speed. It begins with a typically beautiful clarinet duet and ends quietly, but contentedly.

Allegretto grazioso – Molto vivace (G minor) – Most of the third movement is a melancholy waltz in 3/8 time. Near the end, the meter changes to 2/4, and the music ends in a manner not unlike that of the second movement.

Allegro ma non troppo (G major) – The finale (formally a set of variations) is the most turbulent movement. It begins with a fanfare of trumpets, then progresses to a beautiful melody which is first played by the cellos. The tension is masterfully built and finally released at approximately two minutes into the piece, with a cascade of instruments triumphantly playing the initial theme at a somewhat faster pace. From there, following an enormous flute solo, the movement compellingly progresses through a tempestuous middle section, modulating from major to minor several times throughout. After a return to the slow, lyrical section, the piece ends on a chromatic coda, in which brass and timpani are greatly prominent.