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Antonín Dvořák was born and raised in a small Bohemian town, ten miles north of Prague within the German-speaking Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, he was never happier than when he could work in this simple country environment with its Czech language and customs. While Vienna luminaries like Johannes Brahms and the music critic Eduard Hanslick urged him to move to Vienna, his love for his native soil kept him in Prague.
Dvořák wanted to bring Bohemian nationalism to international awareness, and he strove to make his compositions worthy of world recognition. In 1883 his Stabat Mater became a sensation in the English world of choir festivals. The Royal Philharmonic Society invited him to London to conduct his music in 1884, nominating him as an honorary member, and commissioning him to compose and conduct a new symphony for the following season.
Dvořák considered the invitation a great honor and gave considerable thought to the composition of the Symphony, resolving to do his utmost to make it an outstanding work. “I am occupied with my new symphony (for London) and wherever I go I think of nothing but my work, which must be such as to make a stir in the world, and may God grant that it will,” he wrote to a friend. He started on the D minor Symphony on December 15, 1884 and finished the full score on March 17 the following year. Although Dvořák was a fluent composer, he spent twice the time on this Symphony as it took him to write his previous one.
While the London audience at the premiere was enthusiastic, applauding after every movement, the Symphony is among the most somber of Dvořák’s works. Mainland European audiences were frankly astonished to hear this mood from a composer whom it had always associated with optimism. It took them a number of years to warm up to the work.
In the first movement especially, the dark opening theme prevails although a second theme in the major mode breaks the mood to a limited extent. In this symphony, Dvořák uses the flute to recreate fanciful birdcalls. The second movement is no less intense, but in this case, the opening is gentle, giving no hint of the emotional turmoil to follow in the contrasting middle section. The gentle mood returns, however, to give a soothing close to the movement.
The Scherzo is a furiant, a fast Bohemian dance in triple time that recalls the Slavonic Dances. In the trio, the flute again supplies “sounds of nature.” Yet even in this dance movement, there is a dark undertone.
The stormy Finale is a fitting conclusion to this dramatic work. After considerable time, Dvořák introduces a new theme that vies unsuccessfully with the opening theme to lift the Symphony out of its dark mood. Only the Cello Concerto, in which Dvořák mourned in music the death of his secret love from his youth, matches the grand tragedy of the Seventh Symphony.
Program notes by: Joe & Elizabeth Kahn