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At the age of 38, Brahms was offered the post of artistic adviser and conductor to the prestigious Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, giving him access to the finest choir the city had to offer and a full professional symphony orchestra. Brahms was soon attracting a lot of attention and he came to be regarded as the leading composer of the age in the eyes of musical Vienna.

Brahms had long been captivated by the sound of Hungarian folk music and there was nothing he liked better than to listen to the gypsy bands in the cafes and bars of Vienna. Donald Macleod introduces a selection of the Hungarian Dances Brahms had collected over the years, arranged for piano duet. Also, one of the best-loved of his small choral works with orchestra - the Song of Destiny, a group of song settings by one of his favourite poets, Georg Friedrich Daumer, and Brahms's first orchestral work for fourteen years, the St Anthony Variations.