Zubaty, Josef (1855 - 1931)

Professor of philology at Charles University, choirmaster, pianist, from 1923 president of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences. He was in contact with Dvorak from 1877 onwards through their membership of the Academic Readers’ Association. In 1885 he accompanied the composer on his third trip to England and informed Czech readers about Dvorak’s triumphs in the country in lengthy reports and articles. He wrote the first monograph on the composer, which he published in Leipzig in 1886 under the title Antonin Dvorak, Eine biographische Skizze. Dvorak recognised a fine musician in Zubaty and requested from him a number of piano scores, in particular, for his orchestral works, including Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, Stabat mater, Serenade in D minor, and the overtures to the operas Vanda and The Cunning Peasant.