Dvořák Back Home

Synopsis

After two and a half years in America as Director of National Conservatory of Music in New York City, the Czech composer Antonin Dvořák and his family returned to Prague for good in April of 1895, and moved into his summer house in the Czech countryside.

In a letter to a friend, Dvořák wrote, “I am basking in God’s nature and am contentedly idle. I am not doing anything, which will probably surprise you, but it’s true, it really is. I’m just lazing around and I haven’t touched my pen!”

Well, Dvořák may have been telling the truth about not writing anything down, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about music -- and quite probably was mulling over not one, but two string quartets in his head.

In any case, in late autumn 1895, it took him just a month or so to complete his String Quartet No. 13 in G Major, published as his Op. 106. This was the first new work Dvořák wrote entirely in his native land after his years in America.

The new quartet premiered in Prague on today’s date in 1896, performed by the Bohemian Quartet, an ensemble which at that time included a violinist named Josek Suk, who was also a composer and who a few years later would become Dvořák’s son-in-law.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonin Dvořák (1941-1904) String Quartet No. 13 in G, Op. 106 Vlach Quartet Naxos 8/553371

On This Day

Births

• 1585 - Baptismal date of German composer Heinrich Schütz, in Bad Löstritz;

• 1835 - French composer, conductor and pianist Camille Saint-Saëns, in Paris;

• 1914 - American composer Roger Goeb, in Cherokee, Iowa;

• 1938 - Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, in Helsinki;

• 1940 - John Lennon (of the Beatles), in Liverpool, England;

Deaths

• 1999 - Jazz vibraphone virtuoso, Milt Jackson, age 76, in New York City; He was a member of the famous Modern Jazz Quartet;

Premieres

• 1826 - Rossini: opera, "The Siege of Corinth," at the Paris Opéra;

• 1891 - Dvorák: "Requiem," Op. 89, in Birmingham, England;

• 1896 - Dvorák: String Quartet No. 13 in G, Op. 106, in Prague, by the Bohemian Quartet;

• 1921 - Janácek: "Taras Bulba" (after Gogol), in Brno;

• 1955 - Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, by the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, with David Oistrakh the soloist;

• 1963 - Henze: Symphony No. 4 in Berlin, with the composer conducting;

• 1980 - Jon Deak: Concerto for Oboe d'amore and Orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta with Thomas Stacy as soloist;

• 1985 - Anthony Davis: opera "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X," in Philadelphia; The opera's New York City Opera premiere occurred the following year on September 28, 1986;

• 1986 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical "Phantom of the Opera," at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; The musical opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theater on January 26, 1988;

• 1987 - Corigliano: "Campane di Ravello" (Bells of Ravello) for orchestra (a birthday tribute to Sir Georg Solti), in Chicago, with Kenneth Jean conducting;

• 1992 - David Ott: Symphony No. 3, by the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Symphony, Catherine Comet conducting;

• 1997 - Robert X. Rodriguez: "Il Lamento di Tristano," by flutist Susan Morris De Jong and guitarist Jeffrey Van, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis;

• 1999 - Bolcom: opera "A View From the Bridge," by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dennis Russell Davies, cond.

• 1999 - Michael Torke: symphonic oratorio "Four Seasons," at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, by soloists, chorus, and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducting;

Others

• 1973 - Leonard Bernstein gives the first of six lectures entitled "The Unanswered Question," as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University.