The House in Prague and the Dvořák Statue in New York
The House in Prague, a new book by Anna Nessy Perlberg, explores her childhood memories of her musically talented mother and her family’s life in Prague, shattered in 1938 by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. Featured in the recent Literary Festival: Prague Summer Program at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City, the book is linked to the Dvořák Room and its collection in an intimate way. Nearly ten years ago the Dvořák American Heritage Association received a generous gift of an etching of composer Antonín Dvořák by noted Czech artist and caricaturist Hugo Boettinger (1880-1934). The print bears the artist's dedication to Czech soprano Julia Nessy Bacherová – “excellent interpreter of Dvořák’s songs, April 5, 1932.” The gift to DAHA was made by Anna Nessy Perlberg, in memory of her mother, Mrs. Bacherová, who was one of the group of Czech emigrees who commissioned the bronze statue of Dvořák now in Stuyvesant Square Park, near the former site of Dvořák’s residence in New York, from 1892-95.
The House in Prague by Anna Nessy Perlberg (Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Golden Alley Press, 2016). http://goldenalleypress.com/anna-nessy-perlberg/
In this memoir that reads like a novel, we meet Anna’s shining and beautiful opera singer mother, her prominent lawyer father, and their circle of friends that includes Albert Schweitzer and the family of Czech President Thomas Masaryk.
Born in Prague’s Malá Strana, Julia Nessy Bacherová (1889-1981) dedicated her life to music, graduating from the Prague Conservatory and starting as the youngest violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. She later performed as harpist in the same orchestra and eventually had a rich career as a concert and opera singer, with Dvořák songs prominent in her repertory. She held the Dvořák etching close to her throughout her life.
When the etching was received and placed next to the plaster cast of the Dvořák Statue in the Dvořák Room, it became evident that the print had served as the inspiration for the sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962) when creating the statue. Both statue and etching show Dvořák in the act of composing, standing by a piano, right hand on the keyboard, while he looks at a music score. Like long lost friends, the two artworks came together in the Dvořák Room once again, where they are permanently on view, along with a copy of The House in Prague.
By Majda Kallab Whitaker, DAHA
Golden Alley Press Editor Nancy Sayre and DAHA Board Member Majda Kallab Whitaker display book The House of Prague and etching of Dvořák next to statue by Ivan Mestrovic in Dvořák Room. Photo courtesy of Czech Center New York.