Antonin Dvorak Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The study deals with Vladimír Helfert’s relationship towards the work of Antonín Dvořák. The musicologist Vladimír Helfert (1886–1945) developed his relationship. After absorbing Hostinský’s theory on Dvořák’s operatic work, Helfert, as a pupil of Nejedlý, strongly sided with the Smetana supporters in the famous fi ghts over Dvořák which culminated at the end of 1912. Together with Josef Bartoš, Helfert started a sharp campaign against Dvořák, which Nejedlý, as a supporter of his students, joined only later. In his ideas, Helfert's continued the theories of Hostinský and Nejedlý, and especially developed Hostinský’s note on Dvořák’s musicianship and folkishness. He labelled Dvořák as the top representative of this style, noting that his work did not bring anything new to the development of musical form. Together with Bartoš, they criticized contemporary dramaturgy of musical institutions in Prague that focused on the productions of Dvořák’s works and suppressed the works of the generation of younger composers (the criticism of the slogan „more of Dvořák“ which came up after the success of Dvořák’s works abroad.) After Helfert moved to Brno in 1919, he started to change his opinion of Dvořák slowly, among others also in connection with his works on the music at the Jaroměřice castle. Helfert reassessed his opinions and published them in the treatise Česká moderní hudba (Czech Modern Music) in 1936 as well as in other texts in which he elevated so-called „musicianship“ stream of the Czech music to the level of the form-creating stream, meaning he put Dvořák on the same level as Bedřich Smetana. He admitted his mistakes from the time of the battle over Dvořák, which he led under the infl uence of his teacher, in a letter to Otakar Šourek, an outstanding Dvořák’s researcher, in 1929.

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- Music, Music History, Musicology, Audience and Reception Studies

A comprehensive listing of recordings made by the Panocha Quartet and its individual members in all formats, including LP, CD, Film, DVD and Internet. The paper is due to be published in 2020 by the Dvořák Society of Great Britain in its... more

A comprehensive listing of recordings made by the Panocha Quartet and its individual members in all formats, including LP, CD, Film, DVD and Internet.
The paper is due to be published in 2020 by the Dvořák Society of Great Britain in its journal: The Journal of Czech and Slovak Music.

- by Peter J F Herbert
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- String Quartets, Antonin Dvorak, Haydn String Quartets, String Quartet

Antonín Dvořák composed his last opera after 15 months of searching a new operatic topic. He decided for Jaroslav Vrchlický's libretto Armida from 1888, wchich was written after T. Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. The genesis of the opera consist of a few compositional phases (first sketches, consistent sketch, full score). On stage wasn't Armida successful. It's first performance in 1904 was embarrassed and for the next performance at the stage of National Theatre in Prague Armida had to wait till 1928. Editional history of the opera includes only the vocal score (1941, 1951), full score still waits for its publication.

- by Veronika Vejvodová
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- Music, Music History, Musicology, Reception Theory

It had been almost a year and three months after fi nishing Rusalka on 27 November 1900, when Dvořák started to look closer at the libretto for his new opera Armida in February and March 1902. He had learnt about the available libretto which was offered to him already in 1888 from its author, Jaroslav Vrchlický, when they met in the National Theatre during a performance of Vrchlický's drama Soud lásky. Dvořák started to study the libretto continuously and thoroughly and soon he drafted first motives. In the same time he was intensively meeting Vrchlický from whom he requested changes in the libretto however Vrchlický did not comply with everything. From the beginning of March, the composer had been drafting all four acts in the form of a short score. After that, he made the full score for the fi rst and second act and subsequently for the third and fourth acts, after the score without overture was submitted to the National Theatre for copying (the overture was composed by Dvořák later, from 17 to 23 August 1903). In the pauses between composing, he probably worked on the piano reduction of the opera which he recorded from the very bottom lines of the score. The manuscript of Dvořák's score was copied by four copyists at the same time. Unfortunately, many mistakes were found in the copies already during the fi rst rehearsals, their corrections bothered already complicated rehearsals‘ course which was supervised by Dvořák himself.

- by Veronika Vejvodová
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- Music, Music History, Musicology, Opera

Armida, Dvořák's last opera, was fi rst performed immediately after its completion in 1904. However, the preparation for the fi rst performance were accompanied by problems – confl icts with the conductor František Picka, the illness of Bohumil Pták playing the role of Rinaldo and a neglectful stage production. Nor the premiere was successful. Although the audience encored the composer, he could not make it to the stage as he had to leave the theatre during the performance due to a health issue that later caused his death. The critics were disunited in the opinions on the opera – some stressed its modernism, other regarded the work as not very good. Leoš Janáček, who was present at some of the rehearsals and at the dress rehearsal, expressed his opinion that Armida would have been the beginning of new Dvořák's opera style.

- by Veronika Vejvodová
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- Music, Music History, Musicology, Czech History
- by Daniel Sánchez Muñoz
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- Woodwinds, Mozart, Symphony, Antonín Dvořák

The book is the first complete edition of a unique source for understanding the personality of Antonín Dvořák. It contains the correspondence of the Dvořák's faithful assistant during his American stay, excellent violist Josef Jan Kovařík with Dvořák's biographer Otakar Šourek. The book contains historical study, medallions of important personalities, publishing and editorial report, registers and pictures. The book brings alive, new and sometimes surprising view of the great composer.

- by Veronika Vejvodová and +1
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- Music History, Musicology, Antonín Dvořák, Antonin Dvorak

“Songs II” includes the mature works from Dvorák’s late period. Besides the well-known cycle “Love Songs” and the less well-known cycle “Three Modern Greek Songs”, the volume also contains some entirely unknown and previously unpublished... more

- by Veronika Vejvodová
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- Antonín Dvořák, Songs, Antonin Dvorak

Dvořák's last opera Armida had been produced very scarcely in the past. Although there were some efforts in the National Theatre following the premiere in 1904 to revive the work (1928 and 1941), the opera has never remained on the repertoire. Talich's war production was restored in 1946, however the opera was withdrawn from the repertoire in 1948. Until 1987 Armida was produced occasionally only on stages outside Prague and once abroad (1961, Bremen), however in a very abridged version. It was not the only case when the opera was produced with cuts in the score. The conductor Václav Talich was probably the fi rst one who signifi cantly interfered with the score, doing very sensible cuts not disturbing the dramaturgy of the opera. From Talich's production the opera has been almost always produced in the abridged version. Dvořák's Armida has been still waiting for the publication of its score and for its full restoration on opera stages.

- by Veronika Vejvodová
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- Music, Music History, Musicology, Czech History

Recorded at Norwich Cathedral