Thursday, January 20, 2011

Quotes from the Composers- Antonin Leopold Dvorak




We conclude our Quotes from the Composers series with a quip from the Czech master Antonin Leopold Dvorak (1841-1904). The Romantic-era composer is perhaps best-known for his "New World Symphony" which will be performed by the Colorado Symphony in Denver on Friday (coloradosymphony.org).

Dvorak's famous operas include "The Devil and Kate" (1899) and "Rusalka" (1900) and "The Slavonic Dances" is another one of his famous symphonies.

Dvorak was friends with fellow Czech composer Leos Janacek (1854-1928) who is known for his famous opera "Jenufa" (1904).

And, we learned that "Classical 24" which gives classical music to affiliated NPR stations around the country will be broadcasting Dvorak's piece "Humoresque" at 4:36 pm (a mere half hour from now).

Fellow night owls may be able to catch Jean Sibelius' piece "Pelleas and Melisande" at 11:06 p.m. tonight. We featured the Finnish composer here yesterday. "Classical
24" airs overnight on WVTF, 89.1 FM (Roanoke, Va.) and WFDD, 88.5 FM (Winston-Salem, NC).

This quote from Dvorak is a rather simple one:

"Mozart is sweet sunshine."

SIDEBAR: The term Turkish opera may indeed seem like quite the oxy moron, but composer Okan Demiris did bring many great Turkish operas, including his most famous work "Murad IV" a reality. I was fortunate enough to see a performance of "Murad IV" at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul way back in 1991. Alas, "Today's Zaman" reported in a June 19, 2010 article that Demiris died at age 68 from a heart attack this summer, leaving many musical treasures for generations to come behind.

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