ABSTRACT
One of the most frequent musical visitors to England in the nineteenth century was Antonin Dvofiák, who made no fewer than nine journeys. Born in Bohemia in 1841 into a poor family, he claimed that at one stage he had to decide whether to be a musician or a butcher.1 By the time he received an invitation from the Philharmonic Society of London, in the summer of 1883, to conduct some of his compositions at one of their concerts in the coming season, Dvofiák was internationally famous. Many of his works, such as the Slavonic Dances, the Stabat Mater and his Sixth Symphony, had been performed in England, and there was a growing demand to see the composer in person.
