Dvorak and His World (Bard Music Festival Series)

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by Michael Brim Beckerman

Princeton University Press

Due/Published September 1993, 325 pages, paper

ISBN 0691000972

Antonin Dvor k made his famous trip to the United States one hundred years ago, but despite an enormous amount of attention from scholars and critics since that time, he remains an elusive figure. Comprising both interpretive essays and a selection of fascinating documents that bear on Dvor k's career and music, this volume addresses fundamental questions about the composer while presenting an argument for a radical reappraisal.The essays, which make up the first part of the book, begin with Leon Botstein's inquiry into the reception of Dvor k's work in German-speaking Europe, in England, and in America. Commenting on the relationship between Dvor k and Brahms, David Beveridge offers the first detailed portrait of perhaps the most interesting artistic friendship of the era. Joseph Horowitz explores the context in which the "New World" Symphony was premiered a century ago, offering an absorbing account of New York musical life at that time. In discussing Dvor k as a composer of operas, Jan Smaczny provides an unexpected slant on the widely held view of him as a "nationalist" composer. Michael Beckerman further investigates this view of Dvor k by raising the question of the role nationalism played in music of the nineteenth century.The second part of this volume presents Dvor k's correspondence and reminiscences as well as unpublished reviews and criticism from the Czech press. It includes a series of documents from the composer's American years, a translation of the review of Rusalka's premiere with the photographs that accompanied the article, and Jan SC187ek's analyses of the symphonic poems. Many of these documents are published in English for the first time.