Jiří Bartholdus Pontanus z Braitenberka (1550–1614) was one of the leading Catholic intellectuals of the Rudolfine era. Besides having a successful career as a churchman, finishing at the rank of provost of the Metropolitan Chapter, he was also a very prolific author of poetry and prose and a book…

It was through the opera The Two Widows that Smetana’s operatic works were introduced to Germany’s stages during the 1881/1882 theatrical season at the Hamburger Stadttheater. After 1882, none of Smetana’s operas appeared on stage in Hamburg for a long time. That did not change until with the…

From the very beginning, Smetana’s last completed orchestral composition Prague Carnival was misunderstood as being evidence of the decline of the composer’s creative powers. Although this opinion was gradually changing, thanks in particular to the efforts of Josef Theurer from the end of the 1890s,…

This study sets out to analyse evidence of the reception the Viennese orchestral premiere of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater given on 19 February 1888 under the baton of Hans Richter at a concert of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. The composer mentioned negative reviews of that premiere in a previously…

The private musical instrument collection of the Prague violin maker, collector, and merchant Karel Boromejský Dvořák (1856–1909) is one of the most important acquisitions in the history of the collection of the National Museum – Czech Museum of Music. The previously scant biographical information…