When did Antonin Dvorak compose his 4 Romantic pieces for piano and Violin, na dreason for this composition?

Answer 1

1887

Op. 75

Dvorak was a supporter of amateur music. His mother-in-law had a lodger (Josef Kruis) who was a chemistry student and an amateur violinist. Dvorak enjoyed listening to the young man play duets with his teacher Jan Pelikan. Dvorak wrote a piece, a terzetto (piece for 3 voices) for the two violinists and himself (on viola). He wrote to his publisher, Simrock: "Just imagine--I am writing small bagatelles for two violins and viola. I enjoy the work as much as I do when I write a big symphony, but what do you say to this? They are intended mainly for amateurs, but didn't Beethoven and Schumann sometimes express themselves powerfully with quite modest means?"

But the piece was too difficult for the violin student. Dvorak rewrote the work, scoring it for violin and piano.

Each of the four pieces develops its own warmly lyrical theme. The melodies, while original to Dvorak, share characteristics with Czech folksong: balanced four- or eight-bar phrasing, a strong beginning on the downbeat of the measure, upward leaps that gradually wind down. Repetitions of short melodic units create moments of repose. The broadly expressive, rippling piano line enhances the overall pastoral quality of the work.


Now I have also heard a story, which is almost undoubtedly NOT true, that the piece originally was written as a string quartet. The cellist tended to drink to excess and one night, while intoxicated, fell onto his cello and broke it to pieces. Upon being arrested for public intoxication, the cellist let fly with a streak of foul language against the government, and specifically the Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Not willing to stand for this, the police threw the cellist into jail, his sentence lasting well past the time that the quartet was due to premiere. As such Dvorak was forced to re-write the piece for two violins and cello, and later re-wrote it for violin and piano.

Although the second story is a lot more fun, most references seem to favor the first.

Hope this helps.

Art

Answer 2

1997 or 1998 I think