The Cello Concerto is the last great work Antonín Dvořák wrote during his three-year stay in America. The music contains everything we love and appreciate about Dvořák: wonderfully vocal themes, often breathed on by the melodies of Dvořák's native Bohemia, great dramatic climaxes, lyrical goosebump passages, finely crafted instrumentation. And for the cellist plenty of opportunities to show the qualities of his instrument.

After the great success of his 1st Symphony, for which Johannes Brahms had struggled for no less than 23 years, he literally swam in symphonic waters. He completed his 2nd Symphony in only four months. With his first symphonic work, he had proven that it was still possible to compose symphonies without being an epigone of Beethoven. The serenity of this sunny lake landscape of Carinthia is audible in the 2nd Symphony and quickly made the work Brahms' most popular symphony.