Antonín Leopold Dvorak (1841 - 1904)

Antonín Leopold Dvorak

Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of the Romantic era and one of the founders of the Czech national school of music.

Dvořák showed musical talent early on and became an accomplished violinist. After graduating from the Institute of Church Music in Prague, he worked as a musician in various ensembles and taught, but lived very poorly. However, already in the 1860s he composed two symphonies, an opera, chamber music and many songs.

In 1875 Dvořák received a state scholarship from the Austrian government and met Johannes Brahms, with whom he developed a fruitful friendship. Dvořák's Moravian Duets (1876) for soprano and contralto and Slavonic Dances (1878) for piano duet first brought the composer and the music of his country to the world's attention. In 1884 he made a successful visit to England, and in 1890 the great composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arranged two concerts for him in Moscow. The following year Dvořák became an honorary doctor of music at Cambridge University.

In 1892 Dvořák accepted the post of director of the newly established National Conservatory in New York and, in addition to this work, traveled extensively in the United States, but in 1895 he returned to his homeland.

Through his work Dvořák expanded the path of the Czech national music school started by Bedřich Smetana. He composed in almost all classical music genres, and his symphonies and concertos, choruses and chamber compositions continue to be performed all over the world. Dvořák's best-known works include Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" (written in the USA), the opera Rusalka, the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, the "American" String Quartet, Requiem, Stabat Mater and Slavonic Dances.