Antonín Dvořák

American Suite op. 98

Immediately after the triumphant premiere of the 9th Symphony in December 1893, Antonin Dvorák wrote the American Suite op. 98 for piano. This work, which he described in a letter to his publisher Simrock as the best he had accomplished in this field so far, has remained relatively unknown. Unfortunately Dvorák never composed a chamber music work for the flute, even though he assigned the most rewarding tasks to this instrument in many of his orchestral works. It may therefore be legitimate to arrange this piano suite as a piece of flute chamber music, in particular because it is excellently suitable for a flute/piano instrumentation, considering its melodies and dance-like style - even the original key can be retained.