Composed between August 4 and October 25 of 1897, A Hero's Song was at first entitled 'A Hero's Life', which is curious because another work with that exact title was being composed at the same time by Richard Strauss. Like Strauss' work, this one is autobiographical in nature and alludes to the fact that it was his final work for orchestra alone. The remainder of Dvorak's life was devoted to the composition of opera, and even this last symphonic poem was written while he was revising his opera The Jacobin. The first performance was given by the Vienna Philharmonic on December 4, 1898 under...

Comissioned by the Committee for the Completion of the National Theatre, Dvorak composed this work in exactly one month (August 9 to September 9) of 1883. The original plan was as an introduction to a proposed triology set the the Hussite era by the Theatre's director Frantisek Subert. Subert never completed the project, but the overture was premiered at a gala concert in National Theatre on November 18 with Moric Anger conducting. This new study score is a digitally enhanced reissue of the full score first published in 1957 by the Czech State Publishers as part of the Dvorak collected works,...