Fritz Simrock

[3] Simrock generally paid Brahms well for his music,[4] but with Dvořák he was often unwilling to publish orchestral pieces, for example, his Eighth Symphony.

Simrock thus came to be the primary publisher of Dvořák's music for much of the composer's career, but their relationship was at times strained for a number of reasons.

Among these were Simrock's stubborn insistence that Dvořák produce more light-hearted, miniature works (such as his wildly popular and extremely commercially successful Slavonic Dances, Op.

Also, Simrock often confounded Dvořák with his blatantly anti-Czech sentiments, which were popular with ethnic Germans in the Habsburg Empire at the time.

Despite this contract, Dvořák began to accept the commissions from Novello & Co, for which Simrock threatened, but did not follow through on, legal action.