Antonin Dvorak, Four Romantic Pieces

Antonin Leopold Dvorak was born in a village near Prague on September 8, 1841, and at the age of eight he would show already the skills of a notable musician, accompanying the church choir with his little violin in the afternoons when he would take a rest from his uncommon inclination, the pigeon fancy. He was the eldest of a butcher and innkeeper's children, who did not glimpse for his son another future business than dismembering animals, a craft for which it was essential to know the German language.

In order to learn the language, the butcher sent him to a neighboring city where, fortunately, the young Antonin met a music teacher who after a long and sustained effort finally managed to convince the musician's father to send him to Prague, to study the violin.

Conductor and composer

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904)

It was a wise decision, as Antonin would show an unbeatable musical talent. Although he did not stand out as a great performer, he nevertheless became a great conductor and composer claimed by the big orchestral groups from all over Europe and even from the USA, being invited in 1891 to take over the New York National Conservatory of Music, where he stayed for two years. From that time dates his most famous composition, the New World Symphony.

A quiet and affable musician
Antonin was a simple musician. He felt upset when, on the top of his fame, the audience applauded more than enough, to the point of leaving the stage even if the theater collapsed clapping. His maxim, according to some scholars, indicated that art should stimulate the desire to enjoy existence. Following this line of thought, he spent his last years teaching at the Prague Conservatory, enjoying a small farm nearby, wherein the summer he used to work in the garden and took care of his beloved pigeons.

"Four romantic pieces"
This group of four small pieces were originally written as a trio for viola and two violins, in January 1887. Dvorak called them "Miniatures." Shortly after, he rewrote them for violin and piano, renaming them "Four Romantic Pieces." Today is a custom replace the violin for a cello, which, in my modest opinion, adds solemnity to these four simple pieces, mainly to the last movement, slow, larghetto, the most beautiful of all (beginning in the minute 9:10). There is speculation that Dvorak was planning to add a fifth movement, since ending a composition with a slow movement was, and remains, unusual.
(A curious note: A video game released in 2010, Civilization 5, contains part of the Larguetto in its soundtrack).

At the piano: Viacheslav Poprugin. Cello: Natalia Gutman.