Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)

Born in a village on the Vltava, the son of an innkeeper and butcher, Dvořák learned the violin very young and then studied at the Prague organ school. He first earned his living as an orchestral viola player, notably in the Provisional Theatre orchestra in Prague, conducted for a time by Smetana.

The support of Brahms, who recommended him to his publisher, launched his international career: his Slavonic Dances (1878) were an immediate success. His symphonies, chamber music and Stabat Mater were played all over Europe, especially in England.

From 1892 to 1895 he directed the National Conservatory in New York. There he wrote the Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (1893), then the “American” Quartet and the Cello Concerto. Back in Bohemia he wrote the opera Rusalka and directed the Prague Conservatory. He died in Prague in 1904.

His piano music (Humoresques, the four-hand Slavonic Dances) is less known than his orchestral works, but his melodies, such as the Largo from the Ninth Symphony, are often played on the piano. They teach how to make a simple line sing with great intensity.