It took Antonín Dvořák a long time to establish his name outside his native Bohemia. But by 1891 he had achieved fame throughout Europe. He had premiered his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies to great success and his chamber music was in great demand. His reputation had spread across the ocean, eliciting an invitation from Mrs. Jeanette B. Thurber, a dedicated and idealistic proponent of an American national musical style, to head the first American music conservatory, the National Conservatory of Music in New York. 

Just before he embarked on his “New World” adventure, Dvořák composed three overtures, originally titled Nature, Life and Love, later renaming them In Nature’s Realm, Carnival and Othello. The three are united by a recurring musical theme, although in Carnival it appears only fleetingly in the slow middle section. These works were not composed as overtures to plays or operas, but were more in the nature of mood-setting concert openers.

According to one scholar, Dvořák wanted to illustrate with the three overtures different aspects of nature and her power for good and evil. Aged 50 at the time, he was somewhat disillusioned with love but retained an unflagging zest for life and nature. In Nature's Realm is in arch form, opening and closing gently, climaxing in the middle with broad brush strokes of sound, expressing Dvořák's fondness of nature.