Dvorak: String Quartets No. 8, Op. 80 And No. 11, Op. 61

Description

Antonin Dvořak (1841 - 1904) String Quartets Quartet No. 11 in C major, Op. 61 Quartet No. 8 in E major, Op. 80  Antonin Dvořakwas born in 1841, the son of a butcher and innkeeper in the village of Nelahozeves, nearKralupy in Bohemia and someforty miles north of Prague. It was natural that heshould follow the example of his father and grandfather by learning the familytrade, and to this end he left school at the age of eleven. There is noreliable record of his competence in butchery, but his musical abilities wereearly apparent, and in 1853 he was sent to lodge with an uncle in Zlonice,where he continued an apprenticeship started at home, learning German andimproving his knowledge of music, rudimentary skill in which he had a1readyacquired at home and in the village band and church. Further study of Germanand of music at Kamenice, a town in northern Bohemia, led to hisadmission, in 1857, to the Prague Organ School, from whichhe graduated two years later.  In the yearsthat followed, Dvořak earned his living as a viola-player in a band underthe direction of Karel Komzak which was to form the nucleus of the ProvisionalTheatre Orchestra, established in 1862. Four years later Smetana was appointedconductor of the opera-house, where his Czech operas The Brandenburgers inBohemia and The Bartered Bride had a1ready been performed. It wasnot until 1871 that Dvořak resigned from the theatre orchestra, to devotemore time to composition, as his music began to draw some favourable localattention. Two years later he married and early in 1874 became organist of the church of St Adalbert. During thisperiod he continued to support himself by private teaching, while busy on a seriesof compositions that gradually became known to a wider circle.  Furtherrecognition came with the award of a Ministry of Education stipendium by acommittee in Vienna that included the critic Eduard Hanslick and Brahms for a numberof compositions submitted to the committee in 1874. The following year Dvorakfailed to win the award, but was successful in 1876 and again in 1877. Hisfourth application brought the personal interest of Hanslick and Brahms and aconnection with Simrock, the latter's publisher, who expressed a wish topublish the Moravian Duets and commissioned a set of Slavonic Dances forpiano duet. These compositions won particular popularity. There were visits to Germany, as weil asto England, where hewas always received with greater enthusiasm than a Czech composer would ever atthat time have won in Vienna. The series ofcompositions that fo11owed secured him an unassailable position in Czech musicand a place of honour in the larger world.  Early in 1891Dvorak became professor of composition at Prague Conservatory .In the summer ofthe same year he was invited to become director of the National Conservatory ofMusic in New York,a venture which, it was hoped, would lay the foundations for American nationalmusic. The very Bohemian musical resu