DVO¢DK Life&times

1841

LIFE: Antonín Dvoˇr ák is born in Nelahozeves, near Prague, the first child of Franti ek, an innkeeper and butcher, and Anna. He receives his first lessons on the violin from his father. TIMES: The Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade is signed in London by representatives of Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia – the first multilateral treaty of this kind.

1857

LIFE: In Prague he enrols at the Institute for the Cultivation of Church Music to study organ and composition.

TIMES: The Supreme Court of the US rules that blacks are not citizens, regardless of whether they are slaves or free, and so the rights and privileges of the Constitution do not apply to them.

1884

LIFE: On his first visit to England, he conducts his Stabat Mater at the Albert Hall and his Sixth Symphony at St James’s Hall. He leaves with two commissions for major choral works. TIMES: A bombing campaign by Irish nationalists in London results in an explosion in the left-luggage room of Victoria Station; the building, however, is empty and no one is injured.

1892

LIFE: He accepts an offer to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in the US. There, he composes his New World Symphony, the American Quartet and the Cello Concerto. TIMES: Ellis Island, near the Statue of Liberty, opens as an immigration station on 1 January: almost 700 immigrants are given entry into the US on that day.

1875

LIFE: He is awarded the Austrian

State Prize for composition, for which he has submitted 15 works; among the jurors is Brahms, who recommends Dvoˇrák to his own publisher, Simrock.

TIMES: Ferdinand I, who abdicated the Austro-hungarian throne after the widespread revolutions in 1848, dies in Hradcˇany Castle in Prague.

1904

LIFE: On a trip to Prague’s main railway station at Vinohrady, he appears to catch a chill. He dies on 1 May, and is buried in the city’s Vy ehrad cemetery. TIMES: The Central European Economic Association is established in Berlin, with the economic integration of Germany and Austria-hungary – and, eventually, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands – as its main aim.