Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, B. 141, was completed on 17 March 1885 and first performed on 22 April 1885 at St James's Hall in London. It was originally published as Symphony No. 2. Dvořák's work on the symphony began on 13 December 1884. Dvořák had heard and admired Brahms's new 3rd Symphony, and this prompted him to think of writing of a new symphony himself. So it was fortuitous that in that same year the Philharmonic Society of London invited him to write a new symphony and elected him as an honorary member. A month later, after his daily walk to the railway station in Prague, he said "the first subject of my new symphony flashed in to my mind on the arrival of the festive train bringing our countrymen from Pest". The Czechs were in fact coming to the National Theatre in Prague, where there was to be a musical evening to support the political struggles of the Czech nation. He resolved that his new symphony would reflect this struggle. In doing so the symphony would also reveal something of his personal struggle in reconciling his simple and peaceful countryman's feelings with his intense patriotism and his wish to see the Czech nation flourish. WIKIPEDIA
VIDEO: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
