Silent Woods for Cello and Piano, Op. 68/5, B173

Opus number

68/5

Burghauser catalogue number

173

Date of composition

28 December 1891

Premiere - date and place

3 January 1892, Rakovník

Premiere performer(s)

Hanuš Wihan, Antonín Dvořák

First edition

Simrock, 1894, Berlin

Main key

D flat major

Duration

approx. 6 min.

Dvořák arranged the fifth part of his earlier four-hand piano cycle From the Bohemian Forest for cello and piano for a concert tour organised before his departure for the United States. This is a short little piece of sombre mood, in Czech usually going by the title of Klid, which translates simply as “Silence” or “Tranquility”; in English it is usually presented as Silent Woods. Two years later the composer arranged the piano accompaniment for small orchestra.