Following its initial release on AMB 90008, the Vienna State Opera Orchestra now turns to an equally authoritative exploration of another zestful musical territory, the 'Slavonic Dances' of Antonin Dvoák (1841-1904). Dvoák and Brahms were not only contemporaries and allies in musical thinking but also close friends. In fact, it was Brahms already a celebrated composer who first discovered his younger colleague's astonishing gifts. It was also Brahms who saw to it that Dvoák's first compositions found a publisher the Berlin firm of Simrock. By then, Brahm's 'Hungarian Dances' stood at the height of their popularity and Simrock rightly guessed that similar collections by an expert folklorist from Czechoslovakia (then called Bohemia) would be just as successful. In 1878 Dvoák completed his eight 'Slavonic Dances, Op. 46' and Simrock's judgement could not have been more accurate. Like Brahm's 'Hungarian Dances', these creations of Dvoák exude a spontaneous and sincere quality inherent in the best of folk musi