Antonín Dvořák composed his cycle of four Romantic Pieces (in Czech: Romantické kusy) for violin and piano (Op. 75, B. 150) in January 1887. These four pieces are arranged from his previous composition, a trio for two violins and viola, known as Miniatures (in Czech: Drobnosti), (Op. 75a, B. 149). The first performance of the Romantic Pieces took place on 30 March 1887 at the chamber concert at the Umělecká Beseda in Prague. The violin part was played by Karel Ondříček, at that time leader of the orchestra of the National Theatre (he was a younger brother of the violinist František Ondříček), with Dvořák at the piano. The trio version was premiered by members of the Prague Quartet on 24 February 1938 at a concert of Dvořák's chamber music at the Prague City Library. The individual parts were played by Vilibald Schwejda, Herbert Berger and Ladislav Černý. The Romantic Pieces were published in 1887 by the Berlin publishing house of Simrock, the Miniatures in 1945 by Hudební Matice Umělecké Besedy. WIKIPEDIA
VIDEO: Ivan Ženatý and Sandra Shapiro live at CIM...Live recording from Cleveland Institute of Music Recital Series December 2013.
