Music Maestro, Part 2 - People In Prague #2

In this continuation of my first Music Maestro post about Bedřich Smetana, the second of my famous musicians associated with Prague is none other than Antonín Dvořák, who is best known in the UK for the music from the Hovis bread advert from 1973 (directed by Ridley Scott!)

Statue of Dvořák in Jan Palach Square opposite the Rudolfinum

Born on 8th September 1841 in Nelahozeves, about 35km north of Prague, Dvořák was the eldest of fourteen children, although only eight of the children survived infancy.  He was taught to play the violin at primary school and at the age of thirteen, was sent to live with his uncle in Zlonice, to learn German. Here he also studied organ, piano and continued to learn the violin as well as music theory.

In 1857, Dvořák travelled to Prague to enrol in the Organ School where he also joined various bands and orchestras as a minor violinist. He left the school in 1859, second in his class. One of the orchestras he joined was taken on as part of the Provisional Theatre orchestra where Dvořák played viola starting in 1862. That same year he began writing his first string quartet.

In 1873, he married Anna Čermáková, with whom he had nine children but three died in infancy. Between 1860 and 1870, he wrote a number of pieces, many of which he destroyed (including his first symphonic efforts), and very few of which received much in the way of public performances or critical recognition. Some of these pieces were not premiered until a century after they were written - the third string quartet first premiered in 1969, and his first opera, Alfred, was not performed in full until 1938.

Dvořák's work began to get traction in Prague in 1873 when his Piano Quintet in A major (Op.5) became his first composition played in a concert. His cantata, The Heirs of the White Mountain, was regarded as 'an unqualified success', but he remained largely unknown outside of Prague. However, at the age of 33, he applied for and won the Austrian State Prize for composition in 1875. He submitted fifteen compositions, including his third and fourth symphonies. Among the jurors for the award was Johannes Brahms.

He entered for the prize again in 1875, 1876, and 1877, winning in both 76 and 77. Once again, Brahms had been part of the jury and he offered to help make Dvořák's work get wider recognition beyond the Bohemian region, and in due course, his music began to be performed in Germany, Britain, France and the US. His music was not so well received closer to home, in Austria, where he fell victim to an under-current of anti-Czech feeling.

In the 1880's Dvořák's work became extremely well-received in England and the US, visiting Britain at least eight times. In 1892 he became the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, on a salary of $15,000. Not bad for a musician, who prior to being married, had to live with five other musicians, and who didn't own a piano before 1875. During his time in New York, he began to engage with African-American and Native American music, and in 1893, he was commisioned by the New York Philharmonic to write his Symphony No.9 - 'From the New World' to worldwide acclaim.

After three years in New York, Dvořák was becoming increasingly homesick and returned to Prague to resume his professorship at the Conservatory. He continued to compose, focusing mainly on opera and chamber music. His association with Brahms continued also, and the Austrian tried in vain to persuade him to go and live in Vienna, offering his entire fortune. The Czech remained resolutely in Prague but visited his mentor on his deathbed in April 1897.

Dvořák's grave in Vyšehrad Cemetery

In 1901, Dvořák was made a member of the Austro-Hungarian House of Lords by Emperor Franz Joseph I, but in April 1904 he contracted influenza and died, aged 62, on May 1st 1904. He left many unfinished works behind. He is buried in Vyšehrad cemetery.

Music Maestro, Part 1 - People In Prague #2

Continuing my theme of People In Prague, I've chosen three famous musicians associated with the city. Two of the three composers are natives of the Czech Republic, the third was a visitor who has been adopted by the city despite only having visited five times and spending less than a few months in Prague in total. I had intended to include them all in a single post, but their stories are too interesting to try and condense and still do them justice. So, here is the first of my musical Prague heroes.

Bedřich Smetana was born on 2nd March 1824 and is regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music, although Internationally Antonín Dvořák is generally better known and considered to be more significant. Smetana is best known for his opera, "The Bartered Bride" and for his symphonic poem cycle, "Má vlast" ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land. Born near the border between Bohemia and Moravia, he grew up as a German speaker, which was then the official language.

He gave his first public performance, a piano recital, at the age of six. He moved to school in Prague in 1839, but he fared badly there, largely because he was bullied because of his country manners, although it was here that he became convinced that he wanted to become a musician, and spent most of his time missing classes and attending concerts. He was removed by his father and moved to Plzeň until 1843. He wrote a number of pieces here, including his first orchestral work. He returned to Prague where he found a mentor and secured work teaching a nobleman's children. Smetana joined the Prague uprising in 1848, rebelling against the Habsburg rule, and wrote a number of patriotic pieces and was lucky to escape imprisonment after an uprising at the Charles Bridge.

Also at this time, he began a friendship with Franz Liszt, one of his early heroes, and was able to start a Piano Institute in Prague which was particularly fashionable with nationalists. He was later established as the Court Pianist in Prague Castle, then the residence of the former Austrian Emperor Ferdinand. But the next few years were a mixture of tragedy as he lost three of his daughters in quick succession between 1854 and 1856. His wife was also diagnosed with tuberculosis. He left Prague, disenchanted with the city’s critics and moved to Gothenburg in Sweden. He became more established in Gothenburg during 1856 and 1861, and although his wife died in 1859, he quickly remarried the following year.

The Smetana Museum overlooking the Vltava

He returned to Prague in 1861 where he learned Czech but was turned down for several key appointments, primarily because of his revolutionary past, and his association with Liszt. In 1866 his opera, The Bartered Bride, was premiered on the eve of the Austro-Prussian war. It was not well attended and failed to cover its costs. Eventually, in 1866 Smetana became the principal conductor of the Provisional Theatre, a post he had long coveted. For the next 8 years, he battled against personal enemies who attacked him at all levels. In1874 his health started to fail and by October he had lost his hearing. By then he had begun work on "Má vlast”, and the complete cycle was first performed in November 1882. He never heard it being played.

The grave and memorial at Vyšehrad

His health continued to deteriorate and he was suffering from mental problems as well. He died in the Kateřinky Lunatic Asylum in Prague on 12 May 1884. He is buried in the cemetery at Vyšehrad. The Bedřich Smetana Museum was founded in 1926 and moved to its current location at the former Waterworks on the bank of the Vltava in 1936. 

A fitting site for the Smetana Museum overlooking the castle and river