Slavic export hits: Eastern European dances were all the rage with the 19th-century Viennese public. For that very reason Johannes Brahms recommended Antonín Dvořák to his publisher Simrock, calling his still unknown friend an "expert". The introduction paid off: composing in his "native tongue", Dvořák turned out veritable crowd pleasers with his Slavonic Dances, which made him famous overnight and became a gold mine for his publisher.