Dvorak- Slavonic Dances

This was $2.00.  After seeing a performance of Dvorak’s Rusalka, his work had been on my radar.  

When the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) wrote the Slavonic Dances, he was virtually unknown outside of Prague.  After winning an Austrian State prize for composition, one of the judges, Johannes Brahms was impressed and recommended him to his publishing firm, Simrock.  Simrock commissioned Dvorak to write a sequel to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances from 1869.  He first wrote Op 46 in 1878.  Op 72 followed in 1886.  Both were successful and well received.

This record features both Op 46 and 72 as played by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.  It was released on Vox Records in 1961. The music is pretty stirring and although it used Brahms’ work as a starting reference, the music is purely Dvorak.  For samples, I went with movement #2 from Op 46 and movement #7 from Op 72.

Good little record.  Satisfactory.