Czech Philharmonic

If anyone had told Antonín Dvořák that his Ninth Symphony would be sent into space, he wouldn’t have believed his ears. But 76 years after its premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Neil Armstrong took a recording of it on his Apollo 11 mission. In the new world, Dvořák wrote some of his masterpieces including this last symphony. Inspired by Negro spirituals, Native American songs and the wide open American vistas, this 'temporary American immigrant' penned a symbolic ode to his new home. We almost taste the couleur locale: the spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot echoes in a flute solo, kettledrums pound out the rhythm of an Indian dance… But there is also still always that typical Czech combination of zest for life and nostalgia that makes Dvořák's music so irresistible.