Distant Sounds

In the summer of 1892, Josef Suk was a frequent guest in the country house of his teacher Antonín Dvořák. Here he met Dvořák’s daughter Otýlie, who charmed him immediately. The burgeoning love did not last long, as Otýlie accompanied her family to America. But it was not just homesickness that led Otýlie to return to Europe earlier than planned. When Antonín Dvořák finally returned home in April 1895, the love between his daughter and former student Josef Suk had long since been sealed. With Dvořák's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra, written in 1894 during his stay in the United States, and the symphonic poem "The Noon Witch" op. 108 of 1896 and Josef Suk's "Scherzo fantastique", composed shortly after the death of his mentor and father-in-law, the Second Symphony Concert offers musical insights into this intense and emotional time in the life of the two Czech composers.