Homesick

Donald Macleod surveys Dvořák’s second full year in America when the Czech composer begins to feel unsettled.

Antonín Dvořák became the first Czech composer to achieve global fame. His gift for transforming the folk styles of his native Bohemia into richly romantic classical music won him admirers far beyond his homeland. Consequently, Dvořák was approached to leave Europe and serve as director of the newly established National Conservatory of Music in America. His sponsors hoped he would help foster a new and distinctive American musical style, less reliant upon Germanic traditions. During his time in America, Dvořák composed many of his most celebrated works, including his Ninth Symphony and his Cello Concerto. This week, Donald Macleod focuses on Dvořák’s American years and uncovers what he achieved there.

During 1894, Dvořák’s second full year in America, the charm of the New World was wearing a little thin. The previous year he’d taken a summer vacation to Spillville where, amongst a Czech community there, Dvořák had begun to feel pangs of homesickness. His time as Director of the Conservatory of Music was proving productive however dark clouds were slowly appearing. The salary he’d been promised by Mrs. Thurber, who’d established the conservatoire, had not been forthcoming; Dvořák began to wonder if it ever would be. Increasingly disheartened, Dvořák returned to his native Bohemia for the summer. He returned to America for the Autumn term where he continued to explore African American spirituals, alongside his friend and unofficial student, Harry T. Burleigh, who was developing his own voice as a Black American composer and arranger.

Humoresques, Op 101 No.7 (excerpt)
Inna Poroshina, piano

Suite in A, Op 98B (Allegro)
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Dmitry Yablonsky, conductor

String Quartet No 12 in F, Op 96 “The American” (Vivace)
Škampa Quartet

Humoresques, Op 101 (excerpt)
Inna Poroshina, piano

Biblical Songs, Op 99 (excerpt)
Magdalena Kozená, mezzo-soprano
Berlin Philharmonic,
Simon Rattle, conductor

Harry T. Burleigh
Among the Fuchsias, from Five Songs of Laurence Hope
Cynthia Haymon, soprano
Warren Jones, piano

Harry T. Burleigh
Worth While, from Five Songs of Laurence Hope
Cynthia Haymon, soprano
Warren Jones, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock