Symphony No. 7 in D Minor

A meeting of Germanic influences and Czech national pride, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 (1885) marked his burgeoning reputation in international concert life. The symphony was a commission from London’s Royal Philharmonic Society—the same organisation that commissioned Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (1824)—and it came as Dvořák’s publisher, Fritz Simrock, was urging him to adapt a more cosmopolitan, less provincial manner. (The publisher insisted on printing his name as the German Anton rather than the Czech Antonín, which Dvořák took as an attack on his nationality.) The influence of Brahms is heard at points in the Seventh, especially in the first and fourth movements, both in sonata form and featuring rigorous development sections. Czech-specific traits are also evident, most prominently in the scherzo movement, which has the churning accents of a Slavic folk dance. Another influence points to Dvořák’s love of trains. The composer enjoyed nothing more than watching locomotives pull into railway stations and chatting with train engineers. He noted on the first movement of the score that the main theme, with its low string rumblings, came to him at the station in Prague as a train carrying his countrymen arrived for a concert to benefit Czech political struggles. The overall mood of the Seventh is darker and more brooding than its neighbouring Symphonies Nos 6 and 8, but that did not dampen the enthusiastic reception at its London premiere, and the score was performed throughout Europe and the US in the following years.