DVORAK Antonín: Slavonic Dance op. 72 no. 2, transcription by Barbora PLACHA

Description

Antonín Dvořák freely incorporated Czech folk elements into his music, and the Slavonic Dances are some of the most famous examples. It was Brahms who, impressed by Dvořák, recommended him to his publisher, Simrock. Simrock – aware that Brahms’s Hungarian Dances had sold well – commissioned the first set of Slavonic Dances (op. 46) from Dvořák in 1878. They were so successful that Dvořák became famous almost overnight. The second set of Slavonic Dances op. 72 followed, in 1886. As Brahms did with the Hungarian Dances, Dvořák also promptly orchestrated them both, in an interesting trajectory from folk source to orchestral show-stopper.

Op. 72 is dominated by melodies from neighbouring Slavic countries, and is more lyrical and reflective than the exuberant op. 46. The second dance’s melody reappears, seven years later, in the American String Quartet.