Fritz Simrock

Friedrich August Simrock, better known as Fritz Simrock (January 2, 1837 in Bonn – August 20, 1901 in Ouchy) was a German music publisher who inherited a publishing firm from his grandfather Nikolaus Simrock. Simrock is most noted for publishing most of the music of Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák.

Simrock published almost all of Brahms's pieces from Opus 16 to Opus 120 and was very good friends with Brahms, even going on holidays to Italy with him. Simrock generally paid Brahms well for his music, but with Dvořák he was often unwilling to publish orchestral pieces, for example, his Eighth Symphony. Simrock was so involved in the lives of prominent musicians that Joseph Joachim came to believe that his wife Amalie was cheating on him with Simrock, and Brahms wrote a famous "lengthy letter" in support of Amalie's innocence, which "was cited in evidence at the [Joachims'] divorce proceedings." The divorce was not granted.

Per Brahms's advice, Simrock took a chance with the young Antonín Dvořák. However, as Dvořák's popularity grew, he began to receive commissions for large-scale works from other publishers, notably Novello & Co. in England, which looked increasingly tempting to the composer despite his long-term oral contract with Simrock specifying that Simrock would be his sole publisher. Despite this contract, Dvořák began to accept the commissions from Novello & Co, for which Simrock threatened, but did not follow through on, legal action.