Antonin Dvorak’s overtures are comparable in length and form to the first movement of a symphony. The pieces were written with the intention of preceding a performance of a spoken play or opera. The works on this recording, however, begin to show a transition away from the preceding purpose and toward full independence, each overture expressing a story or scene rather than anticipating what is to follow.

"My Home" was originally performed as an overture to a play in 1882. The play however, fell out of the repertoire, but the overture has lived on. The "Hussite Overture" from 1883 was written with the intention of preceding a play which was never completed, but again, the overture survived. The overtures "In Nature’s Realm", "Carnival", and "Othello", ranging in composition date from 1891-1892, were intended from the beginning to be concert works, with the "plot" specified by the title or verbal indications written into the manuscript score.