Marsalis and New World

Dvořák traveled to America in the 1890s, and this wild, new country thrilled him. He admired the beauty of African American spirituals and was fascinated by Native American traditions. When describing his “New World” symphony, he said, “I tried to write only in the spirit of those national American melodies,” but his Ninth is clearly an expression of both the Old World and the new. It is joined by Martinů’s Second Symphony, commissioned by Clevel...