Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances – Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle at Lucerne Festival | on Arte
22.01.2017 6:30 PM
Even if the music world is often dominated by rivalry, examples of genuine friendships can certainly be found. Take Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák: a pair whose friendship was free of self-interest. “That fellow has more ideas than all the rest of us. Even what he tosses into the trash could serve as a main theme for anyone else,” Brahms once remarked about his Czech colleague, 8 years his junior – and he didn’t just stop at nice compliments. In 1877 Brahms recommended his publisher Fritz Simrock to take on Dvořák, at the time a completely unknown composer from Prague. And sure enough, his first publication, the spirited Slavonic Dances, enjoyed a sensational success. In this summer the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle played this great piece of music at the Lucerne Festival 2016.