Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099437127
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: DVORAK
Description
Antonin Dvofak (1841 -1904) String Quartets Quartet No.12, in F major, Op. 96, \AmericanQuartet No.13 in G major, Op. 106 Antonin Dvorak was born in 1841, the sonof a butcher and innkeeper in the village of Nelahozeves, near Kralupyin 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 ski1l in which he had a1ready acquiredat home and in the village band and church. Further study of German and ofmusic at Kamenice, a town in northern Bohemia, led to his admission,in 1857, to the Prague Organ School, from whichhe graduated two years later. In the years that followed, Dvorak earnedhis living as a viola-player in a band under the direction of Karel Komzakwhich was to form the nucleus of the Provisional Theatre Orchestra, establishedin 1862. Four years later Smetana was appointed conductor of the opera-house,where his Czech operas and The Bartered Bride had a1ready been performed.It was not until1871 that Dvorak 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 gradua11y became known to a wider circle. Further recognition came in 1875 with theaward of a Ministry of Education stipendium by a committee in Vienna thatincluded the critic Eduard Hanslick and Brahms. The following year Dvorakfailed to win the award, but was successful in 1877. His fourth app1ication brought the personalinterest of Hanslick and Brahms and a connection with Simrock, the latter'spublisher, who expressed a wish to publish the Moravian Duets andcommissioned a set of Slavonic Dances for piano duet. These compositionswon particular popularity .There were visits to Germany and to England, where hewas always received with greater enthusiasm than a Czech composer would ever atthat time have won in Vienna. The series ofcompositions that followed secured him an unassailable position in Czech musicand a place of honour in the larger world. Early in 1891 Dvorak became professor ofcomposition at Prague Conservatory. In the summer of the same year he wasinvited to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, a venturewhich, it was hoped, would lay the foundations for American national music. Thevery Bohemian musical results of Dvorak's time in America are wellknown. Here he wrote his Ninth Symphony, From the New World, its themesinf
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
