Symphony No. 8 Antonín Dvorák

The work

 ‘They are the real masters. Before I die, I shall write a bird symphony.’ So promised Antonín Dvorák, ardent nationalist, pigeon-fancier, train-spotter, devoted family man and, following the recent death of Bedrich Smetana, Bohemia’s foremost living composer.

This was in 1889, four years after Dvorák had given the triumphant premiere of his Seventh Symphony in London, at the invitation of the Royal Philharmonic Society. It secured for him the international recognition previously denied him when his sunny Sixth Symphony of 1881