Dvořák's friend and mentor Johannes Brahms had written a double concerto for violin and cello in 1887, eight years before Dvořák's cello concerto. He corrected the proofs of Dvořák's concerto for the composer and hence he knew the work intimately from the score. In 1896, Robert Hausmann had played it at his home with Brahms' piano accompaniment, and Brahms is reported as saying: "If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!" On 7 March 1897, Brahms heard Hugo Becker's performance of the piece in a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, and he said to his friend Gänsbacher before the concert: "Today you will hear a real piece, a male piece!"