Carnival concert
High-quality music is a must wherever entertainment is sought. Vienna native Johann Strauss Jr. worked as a composer, bandleader, and conductor. He gained fame and international renown primarily as the author of inimitable Viennese waltzes and operettas. For Dmitri Shostakovich, the waltz was a vehicle for grotesque and sarcastic scenes, especially in his symphonic giants. His compatriot Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, de facto the first professional Russian composer, also contributed to salon compositions with his Waltz Fantasy. When the publisher Simrock asked Antonín Dvořák for Czech dances similar to Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dances, the Czech composer did not hesitate. Raised on Czech folk dance music, he was completely in his element when composing.
