In between his two academic years serving as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, Antonin Dvorak spent the summer in Spillville, Iowa, a farming community of about 350 people, many of whom were Czechs or Bohemian Germans. It was a restful place for him, and while there he composed a string quartet -- one of a small number of "Pieces from America," a category that also includes, of course, the New World Symphony.
We'll get to that symphony in a few weeks, but this Thursday we'll listen to the quartet that put Spillville on the map!
Mozart's Attic Thursday June 22nd at 10:00 PM
NPR
