BARBER VIOLIN CONCERTO
Antonín Dvořák
Born September 8 , 1841 in Nelahozeves , Bohemia ( today Czechia ); Died May 1 , 1904 in Prague , Bohemia ( today Czechia )
SYMPHONY NO . 8 IN G MAJOR , OP . 88 [ 1889 ]
Antonín Dvořák struggled to make ends meet as an orchestral violist , gaining no attention for his compositions until 1877 , when he was 35 years old . Scores he submitted for a governmental young-artists grant came to the attention of Johannes Brahms . Brahms recommended Dvořák to his own publisher , Fritz Simrock , who immediately published two collections of Dvořák ’ s pieces and contracted a first option on all of the composer ’ s new works .
Even so , his works were slow to make their way into the international repertoire . In the Czech lands , however , he had earned the respect he deserved by the time he got around to his Eighth
Symphony , and in 1890 he dedicated it “ for my installation as a member of the Czech Academy of the Emperor Franz Joseph for Sciences , Literature , and Arts ,” which inducted him two months after the premiere .
Simrock had paid Dvořák 3000 marks for his Seventh Symphony in 1885 . When the composer finished his Eighth , which occupied him for about two and a half months during the late summer and fall of 1889 , the firm offered him only 1000 marks . The fact is that large-scale works like symphonies were expensive to publish and hard to market , and Simrock was more interested in acquiring smaller-scale pieces , like piano collections or songs . Dvořák was so insulted that he had the piece published instead by the London firm of Novello — a flagrant breach of his contract with Simrock , though eventually they reconciled . The circumstances of the publication gave rise to the fact that dusty volumes occasionally nickname this symphony the “ English ,” a bizarrely inappropriate nickname for a work so audibly drenched in what , thanks in large part to Dvořák , we hear as inviolably Czech .
Compared to the relatively somber Seventh Symphony , the Eighth ( in G major ) is decidedly genial and upbeat . And yet , if we listen carefully , we may be surprised by how much minor-key music actually inhabits this major-key symphony , beginning with the richly scored , rather mournful introduction in G minor , which the composer added as an afterthought . But even here joyful premonitions intrude , thanks to the birdcall of the solo flute , which develops into the movement ’ s ebullient principal theme .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , and strings .
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