Dvořák - Slavonic Dances

The piano pieces - later orchestrated - that established Dvořák's international reputation.

In the late nineteenth century, piano-duet sheet music was the iTunes download of its day. In almost every parlour in Europe, they were the party pieces of choice, so much so that publishers would outbid each other for the piano duets of the great composers. 

Dvořák's publisher Simrock had even threatened to call off publishing his Symphony No. 7 if the composer didn't stump up the piano-duet version ahead of the orchestral score. 

Simrock must have thought all his Christmases had come at once when Dvořák supplied him with eight Slavonic Dances in this format: perfect, folk-like tunes - although all original Dvořák compositions - in a beautifully saleable form. 

The lively and overtly nationalistic pieces were well received at the time and quickly established Dvořák's international reputation. Today they remain among the composer's most memorable and popular works.