Dvorak was born in a small village on the banks of the river Vltava,
approximately 45 miles north of Prague. He left school aged 11 to become an
apprentice butcher, and the following year was sent to Zlonce to learn German.
Most of his time, however, he spent on music lessons, learning the organ, viola,
piano and basic composition. His interest in music was such that, despite
misgivings, his father eventually allowed him to enrol at the Prague Organ
School in 1857. There Dvorák received the strict training of a church musician,
but after classes attended as many orchestral concerts as he could, enjoying
especially the music of contemporary composers such as Wagner and Schumann.
After graduating in 1859, Dvorak became principal violist in the new Provisuinal
Theatre orchestra, conducted after 1866 by Smetana. The need to supplement his
income by teaching left Dvorák with limited free time, and in 1871 he gave up
the orchestra in order to compose. He fell in love with one of his pupils and
wrote a song cycle, Cypress Trees, expressing his anguish at her marriage
to another man. He soon overcame his despondency, however, and in 1873 he
married her sister Anna Cermakova.
In 1874 Dvorák entered no fewer than 15 works - including his Third Symphony
- for the Austrian National Prize. He won and received a welcome cash prize and,
perhaps more importantly, the admiration and support of Brahms, who was one of
the judges. Brahms put Dvorák in touch with his own publisher, Simrock, who
commissioned the popular first set of Slavonic Dances in 1878. These
robust pieces, notable for sudden mood switches from exuberant dance tunes to
dark and melancholy melodies, were played not only in the musical centres of
Europe, but also in the United States and England.
From this point on Dvorák's fame escalated. In 1884 he received a warm welcome
to London, the first of nine visits. Several of his major works, including the Seventh
and Eights Symphonies, were written for performance in England. Often
regarded as Dvorák's greatest work, the Seventh Symphony powerfully
expresses a mood of tragedy through solemn music overlaid with ominous and
foreboding overtones. In contrast, the more relaxed Eight Symphony makes
use of the folk melodies, conveyed with rythmic verve and colourful
orchestration. Dvorák was appointed Professor of Composition at the Prague
Conservatoire in 1891, but soon after took up the offer of Directorship of the
National Conservatory of Music in New York. He stayed for three years in the
United States, spending summer holidays in Spillville, a Czech-speaking
community in Iowa. It is from this period that some of his best-loved music
comes, notably the Symphony No.9 (From the New World) and the American
String Quartet. Both these works make use of themes influenced by American
Indian folk melodies and Negro spirituals. As Dvorák later admitted, something
of their melancholy can be attributed to the homesickness he felt during his
time in America. Just before leaving in 1895 he produced his major symphonic
work, the remarkable Cello Concerto, which in its expressive power and
melodic beauty rivals even the Seventh Symphony.
Returning to Prague with some relief, Dvorák resumed his post at the Prague
Conservatoire and in 1901 became its director. For the last three years of his
life he devoted the greater part of his creative energies to working on
symphonic poems and operas. He died in 1904. Dvorák's importance lies partly in
his nationalist outlook. During the later half of the nineteenth century,
Bohemia (later part of the Czech Republic) - long supressed under German rule -
fought for its political and cultural independence.
Dvorák, like Smetana and Janácek, consciously looked to Bohemian folklore for
artistic inspiration, imitating traditional melodies, as in the Slavonic
Dances, or using traditional legends, as in his best-known opera, Rusalka,
composed in 1900. Dvorák exercised a great gift for absorbing folk styles and
reproducing them in the context of the Classical tradition.
String Quartet No.12/Bagatelles/Terzetto
Symphonies Nos 1-9
Symphony No.9
Complete Slavonic Dances
Dvorák/Elgar: Cello Concertos
Rusalka
String Quartets
Violin Concerto