BBC Proms - 2009 - Prom 67: Janacek, McCabe, Dvorak - Part 2

From the Royal Albert Hall, London. Presented by Louise Fryer. Dvorak wrote his Ninth Symphony during a three-year stay in New York during the 1890s. He wrote the title 'From the New World' himself on the front page of the score, and declared that it was in the spirit of Negro and Red Indian folk music. Dvorak stopped short of using any actual American melodies, but it is often said that the spiritual Swing low, sweet chariot appears tantalisingly close on the flute in the first movement. It is also undeniable that in his Ninth Symphony Dvorak is longing for his native Czech heritage and its Bohemian melodies. BBC National Orchestra of Wales Jac van Steen (conductor) Dvorak: Symphony No 9 (From the New World).