Antonín Dvořák, 9. Sinfonie

Antonín Dvořák's 9th Symphony bears the name From the New World, as it was inspired by Dvořák's three-year stay in America. During the composer's lifetime, it became known as his 5th Symphony and is now one of his most popular and most frequently performed orchestral works.
When Antonín Dvořák set foot on American soil in 1892 to accept an appointment as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, he was already a world-famous composer. It was therefore not surprising that Jeannette Thurber, the American patron and co-founder of the New York institute, offered him this lucrative and prestigious post.
With the 9th Symphony, which was composed during his three-year stay in America, Dvořák created what is probably his most popular symphonic work. Although, as a conductor and teacher, he had taken on the task of educating a young generation of musicians who were to develop a national American musical style, his 9th Symphony is by no means American music. In a newspaper interview, he explained his approach:
"I carefully studied a certain number of Indian melodies given me by a friend, and became wholly imbued with their characteristics - rather, their spirit. I have tried to reproduce this spirit in my new symphony without actually using the melodies. I have simply written original themes that embody the characteristics of Indian music and developed them with the means of modern rhythms, harmony, counterpoint and orchestral color. [...]
Well, I realized that the music of the blacks and the Indians was practically identical." - ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK[1]
The work reveals that Dvořák's knowledge of authentic music of indigenous peoples and blacks cannot have been very profound. Nevertheless, certain influences are recognizable: rhythmically, the syncopations typical of spirituals in the main and second secondary themes of the first movement are particularly striking. The second movement, originally conceived as a legend, uses Henry Longfellow's poem about Hiawatha in an almost programmatic manner. The elegiac cor anglais melody is based on the pentatonic scale, which was very characteristic of Native American music. In addition, however, the Bohemian musician is unmistakably evident with his musical language rooted in his native folk music, for example in the cozy Ländler of the Scherzo Trio.
The themes of the outer movements are short and concise and cyclically subordinate to the basic concept mentioned above: The main theme of the 1st movement appears in all subsequent movements and in the finale, the main themes of the 2nd and 3rd movements are also alluded to.

Musical direction MARTIN PESCHIK
NORTH BOHEMIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Part 1
Bedrich Smetana MY FATHERLAND Playing time
Vysehrad 16 min.
Vltava (The Moldau) 12 min.

P.I. Tchaikovsky ROMEO AND JULIA
Fantasy Overture 22 min.