As part of the 23rd edition of the early music concert series Barbara Maria Presents, a chamber concert devoted to Dvořák’s early songs took place on 1 October. The Brno audience had a unique opportunity to encounter Antonín Dvořák from a different perspective – not as the mature master of the great symphonies, but as a composer who, in the 1870s, was still experimenting and searching for his own musical language, while also exploring the foundations of effective Czech declamation. Soprano Martina Janková and harpsichordist, organist and fortepianist Barbara Maria Willi presented a programme of songs complemented by piano miniatures by Robert Schumann.
The opening part of the evening looked back at Dvořák’s early career and the complex issue of Czech declamation at the time. The programme began with three songs to poems by Eliška Krásnohorská (B 23), written in 1871. The first, Meditation, stood out for its sensitive treatment of word stress and dynamic shifts reflecting a text about unexpected, profound love. This was followed by Remembrance – until recently known only in fragmentary form – which in December 1871 became the first Dvořák song to be performed in public. Thanks to a new Bärenreiter edition by Jonáš Hájek, based on a period photograph of the complete autograph discovered at the National Technical Museum in 2004, the audience was able to hear the song in its complete form. Its structure itself suggested a musical reminiscence: it began in G-sharp minor, modulated to B major and returned to the opening key. The trio of songs, all in triple metre, concluded with Obstacles, whose syncopated rhythms and lively atmosphere recalled the music of the German master Robert Schumann.
The programme continued with the German version of the familiar Czech folk song Der Rosmarin (Rosemary, B 24bis). Its ostinato accompaniment and melodies embedded in the bass evoked Schumann’s style and showed how the young Dvořák drew on the German Romantic song tradition. A darker and more tragic mood followed with The Orphan (Op. 5, B 24), to a text by Erben. The piece, written in a compact two-part form, maintained a fragile pianissimo throughout, creating an oppressive atmosphere around the abandoned child. In the more dramatic second section, a prominent soprano melody emerged before the piece ended with a delicate piano postlude, avoiding any unnecessary pathos.
Between the groups of songs, Barbara Maria Willi performed three pieces from Robert Schumann’s thirteen-part cycle Kinderszenen, Op. 15, on her original fortepiano. In Von fremden Ländern und Menschen, with its narrative character and freer rubato, Kuriose Geschichte, with its more emphatic chordal writing, and the concluding Träumerei, she gave a historically informed and sensitive performance that offered an intimate glimpse into Schumann’s piano world.
Soprano Martina Janková then performed a selection from Dvořák’s Four Songs on the Words of Serbian Folk Poems (Op. 6, B 29) in German (Blumendeutung and Kein Entrinnen). Although the texts are drawn from folk poetry, Dvořák did not borrow existing musical material, instead creating his own stylised melodies, full of contrasts and vocal exclamations.
After the interval, the second half opened with Die Rose from Songs on the Words of the Dvůr Králové Manuscript (Op. 7, B 30), which made a strong impression through its dissonances and mounting tension. This was followed by two songs from Op. 17 (Six Songs from the Dvůr Králové Manuscript) – the melancholy Forsaken and the playful, rhythmically animated Strawberries – which demanded a wide vocal range and assured command of declamation from the singer. Two of Dvořák’s minuets also fitted naturally between the groups of songs; performed on the fortepiano, they provided a welcome change of character, moving away from waltz rhythm towards the stylisation of Baroque dance.
The final part of the evening featured a selection from the celebrated cycle In Folk Tone (Op. 73, B 146), in which words and music come together in a folk-inspired idiom. The compelling performance of Nothing Can Change, with its melodramatic, tragic character and sudden dynamic shifts, and the playful, lively I Have a Faithful Mare brought the main arc of the programme to a close.
The ovation from the full house prompted two further songs as encores. The concert thus offered a stimulating and rewarding insight into the early period of Dvořák’s career and left a strong artistic impression.
Antonín Dvořák: Early Songs
1 October 2026, 7 pm
Brothers Hospitallers Convent, Brno
Performers:
Martina Janková – soprano
Barbara Maria Willi – fortepiano
Programme:
Antonín Dvořák
Songs on Words by Eliška Krásnohorská, B 23 (selection)
Der Rosmarin, B 24bis
The Orphan, Op. 5, B 24
Four Songs on the Words of Serbian Folk Poems, Op. 6, B 29 (selection)
Songs on the Words of the Dvůr Králové Manuscript, Op. 7, B 30 (selection)
Six Songs from the Dvůr Králové Manuscript, Op. 17 (selection)
Two Songs on Folk Poems, B 142
In Folk Tone, Op. 73, B 146 (selection)
Minuets for piano (selection)
Robert Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15 (selection)
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