From local Czech musician to cosmopolitan composer: Czech music reached its peak in his work, but Dvorák’smusic was international from the outset. Love of his fatherland and of nature, a deep religious feeling and joie de vivre mark his music with its unmistakeable national identity, which nonetheless shows a variety of influences. Thus during the years he spent as director of music in New York, he combined typical American colour with the individual sounds of his native Bohemia to create the “New World” Symphony: a unique synthesis.