Vysoká

Together with the recognition he was enjoying in European music circles (in addition to England, Dvořák’s works were also being performed in Vienna, Budapest, Leipzig, Berlin, and elsewhere), things were going extremely well in his private life as well. During the years 1878–1888 Dvořák and his wife had a succession of six healthy children who all survived into adulthood. Soon after the birth of their daughter Anna, the whole family was invited by Josefina Kounicová to visit her chateau in Vysoká u Příbramě which she had received as a wedding gift from her husband, Count Václav Kounic. Dvořák was so enchanted by Vysoká that he decided to purchase from his brother-in-law an old building with a garden at the other end of the village; this he had adapted to his family's needs. For the next twenty years the family spent their summers here and Dvořák wrote a large number of his works in Vysoká, many of which are among his most famous compositions.