Antonín Dvorak - Overture From 'Alfred', B.16a

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Conductor: Heiko Mathias Förster
Orchestra: Symfonický orchestr Českého rozhlasu
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Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer. Born in Nelahozeves, he displayed his gifts at an early age: his first surviving work, 'Forget-me-not polka' was written when he was 14. He graduated from the organ school in Prague in 1859, and in the 1860s he played as a violist in the Bohemian Provisional Theater Orchestra while also teaching piano. In 1873, he married Anna Čermáková, and left the orchestra to pursue another career as a church organist. Dvořák's music attracted the interest of Johannes Brahms, who assisted his career. Following Bedřich Smetana, he employed features of Moravian and Bohemian folk music. He became popular in the United Kingdom, and held posts in Russia and in the Prague Conservatory before moving to America in 1892, where he became the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. However, increasing recognition in Europe, and an onset of homesickness made him return to Bohemia. Among Dvořák's best known works are his 'New World' Symphony, the opera Rusalka and, and the seventh Humoresque.