Dvořák was born in what is now the modern-day Czech Republic near the city of Prague. His earliest musical training was in organ performance although he eventually learned the violin and viola. At the age of 20, Dvořák worked as a violist in a theater orchestra under the baton of noted Czech composer Bedrich Smetana while also developing his own career as a composer. Eduard Hanslick, the noted music critic of the Romantic period, was a central figure in that career, introducing Dvořák to Johannes Brahms who then put Dvořák in touch with the publisher Simrock. In addition to the commissions and publicity ignited by Hanslick, Dvořák established a friendship with Brahms that lasted many years.
Dvořák’s success resulted in many tours including multiple trips to England for premieres in addition to a teaching position in New York City beginning in 1892. His new life in America had a profound effect on the composer, evident in his Symphony no. 9 From the New World and his American String Quartet in F.
The Sonatina for Violin and Piano, his last chamber work written in America, is interesting on many levels. Dvořák wrote, [The Sonatina] is intended for youths (dedicated to my two children), but even grown-up adults should be able to converse with it... Works for so-called amateurs play a very important role in classical music. This Sonatina, Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, Album for the Young by Robert Schumann, and the first few books of Béla Bartók&’s Mikrokosmos, for example, show that composers cared about writing substantial, interesting works that could be performed by musicians of varied levels. The Sonatina is in four movements, all in G Major, and contains themes attributed to Indian melodies and Negro spirituals.
-- Kyle Blaha