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Commissioned by the eminent violinist Joseph Joachim after a Berlin meeting in April of 1879, Dvorak composed his first version between July 5 and September of the same year, even incorporating changes recommended by Joachim, sending the score to the violinist in November with a formal dedication. Joachim's opinion must not have been favorable as Dvorak set about revising the work in April and May of 1880 following a visit to Berlin, at which point the score was again sent to Berlin. Joachim took 2 years to respond, again recommending changes both to the solo part and the orchestral accompaniment. Playing it with Joachim on a visit to Berlin in Sepember of 1882, Dvorak finally submitted the work to Simrock for publication. The revision process was not completed however, with additional changes being made in December. Joachim never performed the work in public and the premiere finally took place on October 14, 1883 in Prague's then-new National Theatre with Frantisek Ondricek as soloist and the orchestra conducted by Moric Anger.
This new study score is a digitally enhanced reissue of the full score first published in 1955 by the Czech State Publishers as part of the Dvorak collected works, edited by Jarmil Burghauser. Unlike so many of the on-demand scores now available, this one comes with all the pages and the images have been thoroughly checked to make sure it is readable. The large conductor score and orchestral parts are now also available from Serenissima Music.
