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10 things you didn’t know about…

Dvorák

Dvorák was almost a butcher instead of a composer – his father assumed his son would continue the family trade.

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www.colstonhall.org/classical

In 1893, Dvorak spent time with the

Iroquois Indians in Iowa, listening

to their traditional music.

It inspired him to write his

‘American’ String Quartet.

The composer enjoyed weightlifting and was partial to a

game of skittles.www.colstonhall.org/classical

www.colstonhall.org/classical

He also enjoyed pigeon racing and

trainspotting, and while in America developed a love of steamboats.

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As a composer, Dvorák found it hard to find neighbours

who would put up with his composing in the middle of

the night. He had to move house several times.

In the 1860s, Dvorák supplemented his income by playing the violin in Prague cafés.

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The Hovis advertisement, which brought the slow movement of

Dvorak’s ‘New World’ Symphony to millions of new ears (albeit

in a brass band arrangement), was filmed on Gold Hill in

Shaftesbury, Dorset in 1973.

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www.colstonhall.org/classical

Dvorák married Anna Cermáková in 1873

... but only after being turned down by her sister, Josefina.

The piano duet score for the first volume of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances sold out in a day in 1878, testament

to the power of the domestic music market.

But then, television wasn’t a thing in

those days.

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www.colstonhall.org/classical

While in London in 1896, Dvorák mistook the Athanaeum Club

in Pall Mall for a café and was promptly ejected…

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