Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 “From the New World”

Program notes

About the Work

Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, ‘From the New World,’ is one of the most popular and beloved symphonies ever written, and a fascinating meeting of the Old World and the New. In 1892 Dvořák, already famous across Europe, was lured to New York to become director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, with a mission to help Americans find their own national musical voice. He believed that voice could be built on the music of Black Americans and Native Americans, and during his American years he immersed himself in spirituals (a Black student at the Conservatory, Harry T. Burleigh, sang them to him) and in the idea of Native American melody. The ‘New World’ Symphony, written in 1893, is the great fruit of that engagement: not a collection of borrowed tunes, but original music written in a spirit Dvořák absorbed from these American sources and fused with his own deeply Czech sensibility, so that homesickness for Bohemia and the wide horizons of America mingle throughout.

The symphony was an immediate sensation at its New York premiere in December 1893 and has never lost its hold on audiences. It is the perfect blend of memorable melody, rich orchestration, dramatic power and warm humanity, with at least one tune (the great cor anglais melody of the slow movement) that has become genuinely universal. It makes a glorious, life-affirming conclusion to the concert.

What to Listen For

The first movement opens with a brooding slow introduction before launching into a vigorous Allegro; listen for the striding main theme on the horns (built on a ‘gapped’ pentatonic scale that gives it a folk-like, ‘New World’ flavour) and the lyrical secondary themes, one of which strongly recalls the spiritual ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’

The famous slow movement (Largo) opens with solemn brass chords, then gives the immortal main melody to the cor anglais (English horn), a tune of such nostalgic beauty that it was later adapted as the song ‘Goin’ Home’ and is often mistaken for a genuine spiritual. Listen for its profound stillness and homesickness. The Scherzo is a vigorous, dancing movement: listen for the pounding rhythms and the contrasting, gentler trio sections, with rustic Bohemian charm. The Finale bursts in with a blazing, march-like main theme on horns and trumpets; listen for the way Dvořák, with masterly skill, brings back themes from all three previous movements, weaving them together and building to a tremendous, triumphant climax, before the very last chord dies away with a surprising, magical softness. Listen throughout for Dvořák’s matchless melodic gift and the unmistakable mixture of American openness and Czech warmth.