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ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK THE SPECTRE’S BRIDE
ŠATUROVÁ · BRESLIK · PLACHETKA · WIENER SINGAKADEMIE · ORF VIENNA RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA · CORNELIUS MEISTER
CANTATA FOR SOLI, CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA OP. 69
after a poem by Karel Jaromir Erben (1811-1870)
'I just cannot tell you how much these British honour and like me! Everywhere, they are writing and talking about me, saying I am the lion of this year’s musical season in London. (…)’ Antonin Dvorak (1884)
Concerts in different British cities performed a large number of other works by Dvořák, so that it was inevitable that there was a call for works especially written for Great Britain. From May to November 1884 he wrote the cantata The Spectre’s Bride. 1885 the projected concert finally took place in Birmingham. Tradition has it that Dvořák himself conducted an about 400-voice choir and an orchestra consisting of 150 musicians. Many more performances within just one year in Great Britain and the USA contributed towards consolidating Dvořák’s prominence and popularity in the English-speaking world, which have never really waned since then.
