Antonín Dvořák once described himself as a “simple Czech musician.” This may seem an unduly humble self-characterization. However, Dvořák was in many ways quite simple. He was a man with an elemental faith and unpretentious habits, a modest son of a butcher and innkeeper who had a prosaic love for his native Bohemia, and he was a composer whose craft was slow to develop (Dvořák was 34 when his music first attracted attention.). Those who know Dvořák only through the handful of pieces which have attained widespread popularity (the New World Symphony, Slavonic Dances, and Cello Concerto) might conclude that the scope and style of repertoire is simple also. Yet a more thorough study of Dvořák’s life and work reveals that such is not the case. Dvořák has rightly been called one of the greatest melodists of the nineteenth century, and Henry Hadow rated him with Beethoven, Berlioz, and Wagner as one of the greatest orchestrators of all times. Among works of the first rank which Dvořák has left us are at least four symphonies, two concertos, an operatic masterpiece, several overtures, serenades, suites and dances, more than a dozen chamber compositions, and numerous choral gems such as the Requiem and the Stabat Mater. In his own day, Dvořák was lionized by the concertgoing public, especially in England and America. Among contemporaries who admired his work one finds the names of Tchaikowsky, Stanford, Richter, von Blilow, Hanslick, and of course, Brahms, who once said “Dvorak possesses the best a musician can have.”
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