Romantic Pieces (Dvořák)

The composer's family was living in that time in Prague 2, at 564 Žitná Street, in the same house as Dvořák's mother-in-law.

Kruis was also an amateur violinist who studied the violin with Jan Pelikán, a member of the orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague.

[1] The second trio, Miniatures, was written in four movements, which he titled: "Cavatina", "Capriccio", "Romance" and "Elegy" ("Ballad").

"[1] Though he was apparently satisfied with this version of the trio, he nevertheless immediately began to rearrange it for violin and piano.

[1] Dvořák's original manuscript of the trio version (and Kruis' copy of individual parts) was only rediscovered in 1938, and it was proven that he himself was mistaken.

[1] The first performance of the Romantic Pieces took place on 30 March 1887 at the chamber concert at the Umělecká Beseda in Prague.

The individual parts were played by Vilibald Schwejda, Herbert Berger and Ladislav Černý.

Originally the set was untitled, but Dvořák called it Miniatures in the aforementioned letter to Simrock.

[4] Dvořák completed the cycle of four unrelated short pieces with different themes, with apparent influence of Robert Schumann.