The Czech Suite (Czech: Česká suita) in D major, Op. 39 was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879 and published later in his life. Adolf Čech, who was soon to conduct the first performance of the D major symphony that would be published as Symphony No. 1, in 1880, gave the premiere. [1] (Čech also conducted the premiere of the composer's piano concerto in 1878. [2])
Dvořák had only recently become introduced to Fritz Simrock by Johannes Brahms but had already become displeased with several of his new publisher's business practices, including releasing older works with high opus numbers, implying they were new. He offered this work, recently written, to Simrock with a somewhat earlier number (that of works he'd written a few years before) as part of his response. [1]
The suite consists of five movements as follows: