ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK: Quintet No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97

Roberto Diaz, viola
Dover Quartet

Performed on Sunday, January 29, 2017
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

Antonín Dvořák traveled to the United States in 1892 for a new job as director of the National Conservatory in New York, a position he would hold for three years before returning to Prague. By the summer of that year (looking to get out of the city for some fresh air and country life) he traveled to Spillville, Iowa, a small town of largely Czech immigrants with a population of about 350. There he spent the summer months taking long walks, enjoying nature, and taking in the sounds and melodies of the American West.

Dvořák wrote a number of pieces inspired by his time ensconced in the Spillville community, including his E-flat quintet (string quartet plus viola). Many will hear references to the “Old West” in this piece, and others will hear the ever-present echoes of his native Bohemia. Really, it’s a bit of both: Dvorak exemplifies the “edge effect” in music, incorporating the sounds of his new environment into his existing musical language. These influences may be heard throughout the piece: some musicologists say the second movement uses patterns found in Native American drumming, and the slow movement’s second theme is unmistakably Dvořák’s realization of “My Country Tis of Thee.” Regardless of the balance of old and new world for Dvorak, all can agree that he was an artist with an important story of immigration who celebrated his newfound (albeit temporary) home in the United States.