Program notes
A tribute to Antonin Dvorák, one of the great composers of the late 19th century.
As the old saying goes, every Czech has a violin in his cradle. Antonin Dvořák do not depart from this rule. Born into a humble family settled in Nelahozeves, a village near Prague, Antonín Dvořák left school at the age of 11 to learn his father's trades, butcher and innkeeper. Thankfully, Antonín's precocious musical gifts are quickly noticed, and the young boy is sent to study at his uncles's place in Zlonice, then to Prague from 1857 onwards.
Yet, Antonin Dvořák remained totally unknown to his peers until Brahms noticed the young composer, then in his thirties, and helped him in publishing his works. Since then, Dvořák's career was launched. He soon obtained an international fame and became in his lifetime a Major figure on the musical scene.
In this programme, documentary vignettes are interwoven with music and dance tableaux shot among fairylike forests and countryside. These lively scenes stand as a poetic illustration of the composer's music and evoke his passion for trains and boats as well as the Slavic myths and lanscapes that inspired his works...