Born in 1841 near Prague, the son of a butcher and innkeeper, Antonín Dvořák played the viola in a Prague theatre orchestra before making his name as a composer, encouraged by Brahms; his Slavonic Dances (1878) made him famous throughout Europe. From 1892 to 1895 he was director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, where he wrote the “New World” Symphony. He wrote nine symphonies, concertos, chamber music, piano pieces and the opera Rusalka (1901). He died in Prague in 1904.
The catalogue presents the Largo of the “New World” Symphony in an easy version written for Noctave, in C major. It is a good first step towards slow singing lines on the piano: play the melody alone first, singing it in your head, then add the held notes of the left hand.
