Dvorak Songs

19th-century Romanticism was a period particularly favourable to chamber songs with piano accompaniment having opened out an impressive fan of ideas and themes. Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) entered this realm of intimacy quite naturally already in his early works, setting poetry which corresponded to his current state of mind. His first large cycle Cypresses, in which he set the melancholic love poetry of Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky (1865) reflected the composer's unrequited love for the young actress Josefina Cermakova.

“Think about a young man in love - this is what they are about”, Dvorak wrote to his publisher Simrock when, a quarter of a century later (in 1888), he was preparing the reissue of a part of the collection under the title Love Songs. He revised the incorrect declamation of the texts which his friend Bendl had pointed out to him already at the time when he wrote the songs, and newly stylized the piano accompaniment, thus reviving a piece which - thanks to its emotional content - remained dear to him for the whole of his life.

Evening Songs (1876) are also a large cycle, divided between several opus numbers. Dvorak set the simple, songful verse of Vitezslav Halek in a poetic but not particularly a personally-expressive style: the music lacks the typical features of his musicality so remarkable in the Moravian Duets created at the same time. As in the case of Cypresses, Dvorak returned to Evening Songs several years later (1882) and arranged some of them for his friend, the baritone Josef Lev as opus number 31. Gypsy Melodies (1880) already radiate the typical Dvorak warmth. In them, Dvorak set the poems of Adolf Heyduk (published in 1859) that were a romantic view of the freedom of gypsy life stressing the gypsies' spontaneous love of music and singing. The best example is the song Kdyz mne stara matka (Songs my mother taught me) which has since become one of the most popular pieces of his extensive output. Gypsy Melodies were composed to German texts (translated by Heyduk) and dedicated to Dvorak's admirer, the Viennese chamber singer Gustav Walter.

With Biblical Songs (1894) Dvorak rounded off his contribution to the genre of songs, and wrote, in New York and at a time of a personal crisis, an epilogue of sorts, having resorted to the book of Psalms for consolation and encouragement. The songs to the ancient texts of the Bible of Kralice are unparalleled in terms of intensity of inner feeling, humbleness, and joy, and are a reflection of Dvorak's sincere piousness as well as his extraordinary penetration into the depths of the biblical texts.

In the present recording, Dvorak's songs are performed by artists who wrote a chapter in the history of the National Theatre Opera in Prague. The tenor Beno Blachut (1913 -1985), associated particularly with the operas of Smetana, Dvorak, and Janacek, the baritone Jindrich Jindrak (1931-1994), known for his emotional lyricism, and the mezzo-soprano Vera Soukapova who appeared as guest at the Hamburg Opera and as soloist of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra were artists who also excelled in the genre of chamber songs.