hussite overture
OPUS NUMBER | 67 |
BURGHAUSER CATALOGUE NUMBER | 132 |
COMPOSED | 9 August - 9 September 1883 |
PREMIERE - DATE AND PLACE | 18 November 1883, Prague |
PREMIERE - PERFORMER(S) | National Theatre Orchestra, conductor Moric Anger |
FIRST EDITION | Simrock, 1884, Berlin |
MAIN KEY | C major / C minor |
INSTRUMENTATION | 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, harp (ad libitum), violins, violas, cellos, double basses |
DURATION | approx. 13 min. |
composition historyDvorak wrote this work in the summer of 1883 at the request of the Committee for the Completion of the Prague National Theatre. The composition was originally intended as a musical introduction to a planned trilogy set in the Hussite era, written by the director of the National Theatre, Frantisek Adolf Subert. The latter, however, did not realise this objective and so the Hussite Overture was performed for the first time at a gala concert held on the day the theatre was reopened to the public on 18 November 1883. Dvorak regarded this commission from the National Theatre as a task of honour, which is evident from the fact that he cancelled his planned visit to see his closest friend Alois Gobl at Sychrov castle in order to devote himself to his writing. Dvorak worked on the Hussite Overture at his summer residence in Vysoka near Pribram; it took him exactly one month, from 9 August to 9 September. |
|
|
premiere and subsequent performancesDvorak’s Hussite Overture was one of the composer’s most performed works during his lifetime. This interest was probably also fired by its non-musical subject matter, rather than by its worth as pure music. The work was premiered on 18 November 1883 during a gala concert to mark the reopening of the National Theatre and it was played once more the very next day before the start of the evening performance. In both cases the National Theatre Orchestra was conducted by Moric Anger. Dvorak conducted the work himself six times: in London on 20 March 1884, in Berlin on 21 November 1884, in Prague on 3 April 1887, in Frankfurt on 7 November 1890, in New York on 6 April 1893, and in Worcester, USA, on 28 September 1893. |