Ladislav Urban

“ With this work the composer reached his goal. No greater tribute to his success is needed than Liszt's exclamation upon hearing of Smetana's death—"He was a genius!"
Anton Dvořák (1841–1904) , the best known Czech composer, was a son of a village butcher. From his early childhood his only passion was music. In spite of many struggles and much suffering, he did not cease to study and work. Music was his consolation, his life. In just praise it may be said that the high position of this composer in the musical world is due chiefly to his unparalleled perseverance under his own criticism. ”

“ One of his operas, The Tempest, takes its subject from Shakespeare's play.
Modern Czech music is represented by the works of Vítězslav Novák (1870) , a pupil of Dvořák. He is the greatest unrivaled talent of present Czech musical art. It is necessary to hear only his ocean fantasy, The Storm, op. 42, for soli, chorus, and orchestra, to get an idea of his elementary power of creation.
The principal theme from The Storm:
The magnificent art of interpretation of the Prague and Moravian Teachers inspired Novák to compose male choruses containing very often great difficulties for intonation ”

“ Simultaneously with Novák came another Czech modernist from Dvořák's class in composition, Josef Suk (1874) , the second violinist in the famous Bohemian String Quartet. He is a composer of absolute subjectivity with inclination to mysticism; a real poet, in both the most complicate symphonic forms and in short piano sketches. He wrote the first composition made under the suggestion of the great war in Bohemia, his Meditation, op. ”