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Slavonic Dances Opus 46 and Opus 72
The "Slavonic Dances" are a rough imitation
of an already successful product. But what an imitation!
Dvorák granted his publisher's request,
as he suggested him to write a piece in the spirit of Brahms "Hungarian
Dances". Only the publisher asked it to be Bohemian in nature, reflecting
Dvorák's origins.
The Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, became an enormous
success all over the world. They were melodic, lively and humorous, and
thousands of copies of them were sold, both in the piano version, for homes
and salons of the rich, and the orchestral version, that filled concert
halls everywhere.
The publisher who made a lot of money from the
first collection pressured Dvorák to duplicate his success with
another piece that would include Slavonic Dances. But the composer felt
deceived by the fact that the profits from the first work went first and
foremost to the publisher's pocket, and refused. After eight years of relentless
persuasion, and a new contract, promising him a much larger share of the
profit than what he got for the first part, Dvorák wrote the Slavonic
Dances Op. 72, whose success indeed picked up where the first left off.
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