Dvořák possessed a powerful musical intellect. He was able to synthesize successfully the influences of Wagner, Brahms and folk-music. He possessed an innate gift for melody and could adapt traditional forms to meet his immediate needs. His symphonies and symphonic poems have been consistently popular, but his genius is most fully revealed in his large body of chamber music. The various works in this second volume of the complete music for violin and piano include pieces written between 1870 and 1894, thus spanning Dvořák’s mature years as a composer. The violin arrangements of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances have been extremely popular from the time that they first appeared. The other works in this programme are representative of the shorter works that Dvořák wrote with such skill. All are brim full of memorable tunes, and demonstrate the prowess of the violinist in ways that only a string player, as was Dvořák himself, fully knows how to reveal.