Symphony

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

3 upcoming performances in New York

Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” was written in 1893 during his New York years, when he led the National Conservatory and argued that American concert music should take Black spirituals and Indigenous melodies seriously. The score filters that idea through a Czech symphonist’s craft: wide-open themes, dance rhythms, and the famous Largo that suggests homesickness more than postcard Americana. At David Geffen Hall, Gustavo Gimeno places it in a city-specific frame alongside Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin, with Hélène Grimaud at the piano. One enduring point is how the symphony turns New York’s cultural argument into structure rather than slogan.