Antonin Dvorak,The Water Goblin.

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) was a Czech composer best known for his nine symphonies, especially the 9th known as "From The New World", written while he was a music professor in New York City. But he also wrote ten operas, chamber music (more than forty works for string ensemble), for the piano and sacred music. Later in his career he also wrote five symphonic poems in the years 1896-1897: The Water Goblin, The Noon Witch, The Golden Spinning Wheel, The Wild Dove and A Hero's Song.

The Water Goblin is a creature of European mythology, with differences in the myth according to nationality. The Czech version of the goblin has a human body, with green skin. He's thought to be the cause of drownings, and stores the soul of the drowned victim in a porcelain cup. Some tales of the water goblin portray him as rather comical, but Dvorak used a poem based on the tale written by Karel Erben, a Czech poet, writer and collector of folk tales and songs. The Water Goblin portrayed in Erben's poem and used by Dvorak is most certainly not comical!

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Valek.