Antonín Dvořák: Largo from Symphony no. 9 for bass quintet (arr. Calogero Messina)

About the Composition

The Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178 (Symfonie č. 9 e moll "Z nového světa"), also known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893.

Dvořák was interested in Native American music and the African American spirituals he heard in North America. While director of the National Conservatory he encountered an African American student, Harry T. Burleigh, who sang traditional spirituals to him. Burleigh said that Dvořák had absorbed their "spirit" before writing his own melodies.

The main theme from the Largo was adapted into the spiritual-like song "Goin' Home" by Dvořák's pupil William Arms Fisher, who wrote the lyrics in 1922.

About the Composer

Calogero Messina; double bassist, singer, composer, choir and orchestra director, active in France for 25 years. A graduate of the Tours Conservatory, he is active in various musical projects either in orchestra or as a soloist.

His works have been presented at the OFF Festival in Avignon and in numerous concert halls.

Find out more about the composer here.