| Eduard Hanslick, "Anton Dvorak" in Dwight's Journal of Music (1880) Eduard Hanslick, "Anton Dvorak," Dwight's Journal of Music, Vol. XL (1880), p. 2. Translated from the Neue Freie Presse. The persons who attended the first Philharmonic Concert read in the programmes for the first time the name of Anton Dvorak, and, for the first time, heard a composition, "Slavisches Rhapsodie fur Orchester" (A-flat major, No. 3), by the Unknown aforesaid. Berlin, Breslau, and Pesth had preceded us in the performance of this composition; in most of the larger musical towns of Germany, and even in London, the work is to be found in the list of novelties for the season. Then the composer has achieved a position very rapidly? All at once, and yet very slowly. He had to go through bitter years of privation and heap up piles of compositions, ere fortune smiled on him, and he was lucky enough to become known and appreciated. Dvorak was born in 1841, in a Bohemian village, near Kralup, on the Moldau. All the week he had to help his father in the latter's trade, but was allowed to play on Sundays in church, and at dances. When he was a youth of eighteen, the yearning for more thorough instruction in music impelled him irresistibly to Prague, where that excellent musician, Director Pietsch, received him into the organ school. Dvorak at first earned the means of subsistence as a member of the band at the Bohemian Theatre, and subsequently as organist in several of the churches of Prague, with a brilliant annual salary of thirty, then sixty, and finally one hundred and twenty florins. Amid incessant cares and privations, he composed with uninterrupted and fiery zeal a large number of choruses, and wrote things for the chamber and the orchestra, including even two Czeckish operas at the Landestheater, without any amelioration of his wretched circumstances. The happy notion then struck him of applying to the Minister of Instruction in Vienna for an "artist's stipend." These stipends are granted annually by the state to assist "young and talented artists without means." Most of them are with perfect justice awarded to painters and sculptors, the last part of whose professional education necessitates as a rule expensive travels for the purpose of study. Such exhibitions cannot possibly foster to an equal extent the native talent for composition; still even in this respect they have not failed to bring forth good fruit. It is true that in many instances talent does not realize all it at first seemed to promise. Nay, a number of talented persons apply who do not even promise anything. Among the petitions which, bending beneath the weight of scores, are annually forwarded to the Minister for a stipend, the largest number usually come from composers who, of the three indispensable qualifications-- youth, want of means, and talent--possess only the first two and waive all claim to the third. It was then a very agreeable surprise when one day Anton Dvorak, a petitioner from Prague, sent in proofs of an intensive talent for composition, though it was a talent still in fermentation. We recollect, for instance, a symphony pretty wild and untrammeled, but, at the same time, so full of talent, that Herbeck, then a member of our committee, interested himself warmly for it. After that Dvorak received every year his artist's stipend, which freed him from his most oppressive musical forced drudgery. And in this position it seemed that matters were unfortunately destined to remain. Although such material assistance afforded by the state undoubtedly carries within it moral assistance as well, Dvorak remained in his native land without an appointment and without a publisher. It was not till Brahms had been summoned by Herr Stremayr, the Minister, to replace Herbeck on the committee, that the recognition of Dvorak's talent took the necessary practical turn. Brahms, who by deed as well as by words aids every serious effort of pronounced talent,--himself remaining unobserved and silent as Schumann once used to do,--obtained a publisher for Dvorak, whose modesty amounted to timidity. Dvorak's "Slavische Tanze" and "Klange aus Mahren" were now published by Simrock. The merit of being the first publicly to recognize the unknown composer belongs to L. Ehlert, who praises the above compositions with kindly eloquence in the Berliner National-Zeitung. "Here," says Ehlert, "is at last another instance of genuine talent, and moreover of genuinely natural talent. I consider 'Die Slavischen Tanze' a work which will go round the world. Heavenly naturalness flows through this music, and is the reason of its great popularity. There is no trace of aught artificial or labored. We have to do with something thoroughly artistic, and not with a pasticcio, made up at hazard of national reminiscences. As is always the case with broadly constituted talent, humor has a very large share in Dvorak's music. Dvorak writes such merry and original basses that they cause the heart of a real musician to leap again with joy. The duets, too, on some exceedingly pretty Moravian folk-songs, are of exhilarating freshness." So favorable was the opinion of one of our most eminent critics, though he was not acquainted with Dvorak's more important works for the orchestra and the chamber. Herr Taubert, Royal Prussian Capellmeister, had Dvorak's third "Rhapsodie" recently performed at one of the Symphony-Soirees of the Royal Chapel, an unusual mark of distinction, considering the classical and conservative character of the above concerts.Immediately afterwards, and likewise in Berlin, Joseph Joachim played Dvorak's Stringed Sextet. Thus they are thoroughly German authorities who have drawn Dvorak from his native obscurity and greeted him as a man of unusual talent. We emphasize this fact because it refutes the ridiculous suspicion that Dvorak's reputation is the work of the National-Czeckish party. His fellow countrymen in Prague naturally patronized in their way the composer of Czeckish operas, but "bei all ihrem Protegiren hatt' er konnen . . . . ("despite all their patronage, he might," etc.). See Heine's poems. There has really been no propaganda at work on the part of Prague for Dvorak, and even had such a thing been attempted, how far does Czeckish pleading penetrate in the world of art? The national antipathy and political opposition, evident in certain Viennese opinions of Dvorak's "Rhapsodie," would here be without justification even were such considerations ever allowable in matters of pure art. If any opposition was contemplated by the public and the critics against the art-descent of Dvorak's work, it has really affected not Prague--but Berlin. The "Rhapsodie" was received respectfully but not warmly. After the impression produced at the grand rehearsal, we expected it would have made a more lively impression. With its fresh, easy, flowing style, it has something about it which carries one away. By its national character and sensual charm, and also by the easy breadth of its form, which is somewhat diffusive and not stiffly put together, it reminds the hearer of Schubert. The very beginning preludes in an extremely happy fashion an andante motive first given by the harp alone, and then strengthened most pleasingly by the wind instruments, a motive which is reflective, not sorrowful; only breathing a little touch of sadness. When we have the same motive rhythmically abridged as an Allegro in three-four time, the effect is marvelous. Then onward it sweeps in a whirl of joyousness. He who could write the first fourteen bars of this score must be called a man of extraordinary talent, genuine and sound. The themes of the "Slavische Rhapsodie" are no national melodies, but free inventions of the composer. As its name implies, the "Rhapsodie" has not the set form of a Sonata or an Overture; it is in one movement, but many parts. It cannot be charged with being too mixed; the whole of it is carried out with two motives, which undergo all kinds of transformations effected with contrapuntal cleverness. It must, on the other hand, be regarded as a mistake that the composer does not know how to end at the right moment, but, after several preliminary starts, suddenly comes to a full stop or turns back again. Despite its length, the "Rhapsodie" does not weary for a moment; the mere charm of the instrumentation would not allow it to do so. Dvorak's orchestral effects, moreover, by no means belong to the artificial flowers sown at will on a piece of tapestry; they are natural blossoms, or rather something flowering brightly forth from out the musical germ, and not to be thought of apart from it. Everything in the work denotes an extraordinary feeling for genuine orchestral effect. EDUARD HANSLICK. | This publication by Eduard Hanslick marks the first time that Dvorak received full treatment in a major European journal (the New Free Press). It was then almost immediately translated into English for Dwight's Journal of Music, a prominent, New England based magazine. Here we see the themes of privation and suffering stated repeatedly, suggesting that Dvorak may have been interviewed for the original article. Is the writer an enthuisiastic advocate of Dvorak's music? |